Deindividuation in Literature Essay Example

People usually follow a trend, and how someone dresses or acts, to fit in with a group. The word used for this is deindividuation. Deindividuation is when someone feels or does something they wouldn’t normally do alone but would do it with a group. Stories, “All Summer in a Day,” Cheyboygan Day,” and “The Fan Club” show deindividuation in separate ways and situations. 

“All Summer in a Day,” portrays deindividuation due to the children of Venus treating the main character horribly. Margot is a girl who is intelligent and knows a lot about the sun due to her living on Earth before moving to Venus. But the kids seem to not believe her because of her appearance towards others. By the students' not thinking Margot was telling the truth, the students decided to lock Margot in a closet. “They surged about her, caught her up and bore her, protesting, and then pleading, and then crying, back into the tunnel, a room, a closet, where they slammed and locked the door. They stood looking at the door and saw it tremble from her beating and throwing herself against it” (Bradbury, 43). Without Margot having enough strength to fight back against the children putting her in the closet, she is showing the reader how frail she is. The kids will keep pushing her around until she can prove how strong Margot can be. The student doesn’t have a problem with how they acted towards Margot on account of being a group. “Then smiling, they turned and went back down the tunnel, just as the teacher arrived” (Bradbury, 43). The children don't express any guilt due to the amount of people that were in the situation. The kids assume they did the right thing, and they know it meant something to them. Would they know it was wrong if they were alone? Yes, and the story “Cheyboygan Day” can help express how one feels about what they have done. 

In “Cheyboygan Day,” a family recently moves into a new town, but the people and kids really don’t like the idea of two brand new kids coming to the school. The new kids, named Adele and Claude Cheyboygan were thought of as another one of those tourists that came to see the festival. Until many people started to like Claude and started to be like Claude. “Everywhere I looked, people were dressed like Claude. They had his old tiny blazers and sneakers, his crisp white shirts” (Allen, 94). The student soon adapts to how Claude is dressed, seen, and how he acts. But people, especially students, seem to dislike Adele due to so many false rumors about Adele just to fit in with how everyone acts towards Adele. Soon Owen the main character adapts to the students' actions as well. Adele sees Owen as a person she can trust at school, but she learns how wrong she was. “A part of me hoped that Adele would hear the “yeah” and not the smirk I shot my friends, but another, larger part of me felt like I didn’t deserve this” (Allen, 105). Owen feels like he made the wrong action while he was talking to Adele. Owen’s identity is slowly taken away due to his group’s influence on Owen. Owen soon notices how he treated Adele and should’ve made a better decision instead of having deindividuation take over how his actions were towards Adele. This further explains how someone can be hurt by a person trying to fit in with the group that takes away what they have been taught. 

In “The fan Club,” Laura, the main person of the story, has this fear of social rejection from the “in” crowd of her school. Throughout the story Laura overthinks about how everyone sees her and talks about her. Until she makes a quick decision that hurts the person who was about the gossip, Rachel. Rachel is a person who is usually the odd one out, and everyone sees er as that, for how she acts, dresses, and talks. Rachel is speaking about her speech until Rachel realizes one of her note cards is gone. Rachel panics and Laura is confused only to find out the “in” group was behind it the whole time. “Choked giggles, shuffling feet– and then applause—wild, sarcastic applause, malicious applause” (Maynard, 56). The applause was to mock what Rachel’s speech was on. Laura is relieved none of the teasing was towards her but soon joins in to make sure it doesn't happen. “For a moment, Laura stared at the card. She looked from Rachel’s red, frightened face to Diane’s mocking smile, and she heard the pulsing frenzied rhythm of the claps and the stomping, faster and faster. Her hands trembled as she picked up the card and pinned it to her sweater. And as she turned, she saw Rachel’s stricken look” (Maynard, 60). Once Laura found out who it was, she was on and off about her decision. Laura wants to fit in with the “in” group, so she takes the chance, but hurts Rachel in the process. Laura doesn't think about how much she hurt Rachel due to deindividuation affecting her. By someone taking the chance to fit in, you can make the person who they affect feel horrible. Moving on from that can make the person forget about it, but always keep it in mind. 

The stories above show deindividuation like nothing before. Which leads to how deindividuation can change the person someone wants to become. The person is affected by a group and can make that person lose their identity. They would normally not lose their identity if they were alone in a situation, but someone can go from being themselves to being everyone else's personality in the group.