To Conform, or Not to Conform

In I Know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan, a group of four friends is caught in a precarious quagmire (two etymology words in a row) when an ominous occurrence augurs a climactic catastrophe.

Four close friends are out partying late at night. After hanging around at the party, drinking, and talking to friends for a good amount of time, they decide to head back home. Unfortunately, the designated driver is drunk, and they find themselves in a sticky situation. Due to a lack of good judgement, they permit the drunk designated driver to operate the car. Upon making a sharp turn around a bend in the road, the driver finds himself in a collision with a person who had been standing in the way. Needless to say, the person is dead after the impact. The four friends get out of the car to investigate the corpse that had been breathing just moments ago. Two of the friends decide that it's best that they all cooperate and dispose of the body in the ocean. However, Julie, on of the friends with a different idea in mind, says that they should report the accident to the police to avoid conflict with karma and any future investigation that could be carried out to find the man whom they had killed. Julie argues her point for a while, until she surrenders to the majority and agrees to put the body in the trunk, from which it will later be deposited into the ocean. The four friends decide to make a pact to never tell anyone about what had happened that summer after the party. The incident gives a hint that it is a precedent for the unfolding of the plot and the suspense leading up to the climax.

The theme discussed in the first 150 pages of the novel is, most significantly, conformity. Sometimes it is better to conform, and other times, it is best to stand up for what you feel is right. When a problem persists, one must take a stand as a nonconformist, but if a problem is a mere peccadillo, there should be no necessity to take up arms. In this situation, Julie seems to have the morally correct idea of how to go about the accident in her head. She gives in to the group and allows her morally correct idea to fade into the background behind a plan that could lead to problems for the friends in the future. Although the book has not yet explained these future problems, I can only imagine they will result from the accidental murder of the strange man standing on the road late on that ominous summer night. Perhaps if Julie would have stood her ground and protected her moral principles with pride, the friends would be able to face their problems now. It seems like karma's payback becomes gradually worse the more we all put off our problems and dissemble our mistakes. Therefore, we should be nonconformists first.

I Know What You Did Last Summer- Lois Duncan (Fiction- pages 1-154)