The pressure of conformity affects individual expression and varies in the degree to which it affects an individual's life. Regardless of the time period, conformity has the ability to force individualists to abide by the social standards instilled in society and downplay the importance of individualism. In the 1920s, New York City adopted a parallel structure of conformity in its figurative hierarchy following the pain and devastation of World War I. With fear of the unknown, a reestablishment of tradition and routine followed, including an adaptation to the use of silences. Individuals with class and power used silence as a vehicle to conform and unify, but individuals with free will gave silence another purpose. It has become a tool to express the pitfalls of this new society. Edith Wharton analyzes the dual purpose of silences through characters who represent different facets of point of view over time. In The Age of Innocence, Wharton emphasizes the silences of Olenska and Archer to identify and criticize the invisible evils that lurk within the hierarchy of “old New York” and reveal the rationalization of a pretentious and delusional society. Describing the nature of a desperate society, Wharton reveals, in this seemingly extravagant social order, a fear of insecurity and change that constantly delineates each individual's motivations and the collective dream, the age of innocence, that is produced. This dream of ignorance arises from the complaints of war due to the loss of culture and people. It pushes the masses to cling to material objects and band together to support by excluding the unpleasant and the rational as a coping mechanism for overwhelming reality. In any case, this principle contributes largely to their actions which... middle of paper......File, Inc. Web. 24 November 2013.Eby, Chiara Virginia. “Silencing Women in Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence.” ColbyQuarterly 28, no. 2 (1992): 93–104. Cited as "Silencing Women in The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton in Bloom, Harold, ed. The age of innocence, modern critical interpretations of Bloom. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2004. Bloom's Literature. File, Inc. Web Facts. November 3, 2013.Wershoven, Carol. Child Brides and Intruders (Bowling Green: Bowling Green State UniversityPopular Press, 1993): pp. 228–230. Cited as "Ellen's 'Double Threat' to New York Society" in Harold Bloom, ed. Edith Wharton, Bloom's Major Novelists. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2001. (Updated 2007.) Bloom's Literature. File Web Facts, Inc.. November 3, 2013.Wharton, Edith. The age of innocence. Original classic ed. Australia: Emereo, 2012. Print.