Overturning Bad Custom which is based on Prejudice

In Wilkins Freeman's article "The Revolt of 'Mother'", the mother can resist her husband's plan to build another barn in his absence. In other words, I believe that the mother succeeds to overturn the custom which is based on prejudice.

The mother preaches to her daughter, Nanny, that "You ain't seen enough of men-folks yet to. One of these days you'll find it out, an' then you'll know that we know only what men-folks think we do, so far as any use of it goes, an' how we'd ought to reckon men-folks in with Providence, an' not complain of what they do any more than we do of the weather" (p.1347-1348). Thus, we can see that people live with prejudice which is based on illogical and baseless custom, especially on the mother. However, she finally overturns it by obeying her belief because she wants her daughter to be happy without the debt which was external and without frivolous issue such as the shape of their house.

I think that overturning the custom is really difficult for people because people tend to be afraid of being the minority. Freeman writes about the minister's reaction to her plan: "Before the next morning he had spread the story of Adoniram Penn's wife moving into the new barn all over the little village" and "Any deviation from the ordinary course of life in this quiet town was enough to stop all progress in it. Everybody paused to look at the staid, independent figure on the side track. There was a difference of opinion with regard to her. Some held her to be insane; some, of a lawless and rebellious spirit" (p.1354). Even though people finally agree and figure out the overturned idea, they do not obey it and they resist the new movement at first because others does not also do.

I think human is a kind of animal that always wants to settle themselves in the majority, even though they might be vaguely aware of the fallacy. Therefore, I assert that Freeman would want us to know the importance of overturning custom in order to obtain behavior based on free will. Generally speaking, although the accompaniments of any change and innovation would be hard, such brave and meaningful action has been making human's history.