What exactly is society? According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language society is defined as a group of humans broadly distinguished from other groups by mutual interests, participation in characteristic relationships, shared institutions, and a common culture. Can it not be said that because every society is composed of a number of unique individuals, there can never be a homogenous society? Why is it then that that individuals are discriminated against and alienated if they are different and their views and values conflict with that of the dominant ideologies"

The relationship between the individual and their society is dramatised in such prescribed texts as Oranges are not the only fruit, The Catcher in the Rye and the film, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. These texts all deal primarily with the nature of social conformity and the results of `being different'. Within the texts, this...