It is one of the most challenging things to maintain an individual opinion as a member of a group (Lessing 307). In Lessing's essay, she stresses that when people are in a group, they tend to give in to the group by changing their thinking and opinions to agree with the group (Lessing 307). Lessing's essay demonstrates the various ways of how people's individuality are affected by group pressure.
             Lessing begins her essay by saying that people in the west may be educated in different ways but all come out with the idea about themselves (Lessing 307). The idea that "I am a citizen of a free society, and that means I am an individual, making individual choices. My mind is my own, my opinions are chosen by me, I am free to do as I will, and at the worst the pressures on me are economic, that is, I may be too poor too do as I want" (Lessing 307). Lessing later states that humans may not recognize or analyze this about themselves which intern will cause them to be helpless against all kinds of pressures on them to conform in many kinds of ways (Lessing 307).
             I disagree with the author's statement of people in the west because I believe that she has made a quite hasty generalization of all the people in the west. Stating that this is what all people in the west live by is a very uneducated comment exclusively due to the fact that no hard evidence was shown to back up her statement.
             In paragraph 4 of Lessing's essay she states that the fact is that everybody lives their lives in groups-whether it be family, work groups, social, or political groups because very few people are happy being isolated from others because they are seen as peculiar selfish, or worse (Lessing 307). Most people cannot stand being alone, so therefore they are always looking for groups to belong to (Lessing 307). Lessing later explains that the real danger is not belonging to a group, but not understanding the social laws...