Literary Conflict

External: takes place outside of the bodyExternal: takes place outside of the body

Internal: takes place inside of the body/mindInternal: takes place inside of the body/mind

External vs. Internal

External Conflict

There are three (3) types of external conflict.

ExternalMan vs. Man

The most straightforward type of conflict pits the protagonist (main character) directly against another character with apparently opposing aims (goals).

ExternalMan vs. Nature/Environment

This type of conflict pits a character against a natural force or physical situation such as a flood, predatory animal, or disease epidemic.

ExternalMan vs. Society

In this type of conflict, the protagonist battles against an unjust element of government or culture.

Internal Conflict

There is one (1) type of internal conflict.

InternalMan vs. Self

Some literary conflicts take the form of a character struggling to overcome fear, addiction, emotional damage, or some other crippling personal issue.

Practice

What type of conflict is being illustrated in the following

pictures?

Man vs. ?

Man vs. ?

Man vs. ?

Man vs. ?

Man vs. ?

Man vs. ?

Man vs. ?

Man vs. ?

Practice

Now that we have mastered pictures, let’s try some text.

Text #1

Quotation:“If she had only proceeded more slowly. If she had only taken the Southerly route, avoiding the icebergs. If only the watch had had a pair of binoculars.”

(news story about the Titanic)

External or Internal?Type?Explain.

Text #2

Quotation: Charles decided to break all the rules

the day he decided to steal that car. He was immediately arrested and sent to jail to await his trial. He should have known better than to mess with the “rules.”

External or Internal?Type?Explain.

Text #3

Quotation:“I don’t care who you talk to!” screamed Sarah to West. “I just wish I had never met you!”

External or Internal?Type?Explain.

Text #4Quotation:

After lowering himself into the damp and dark cave Tom began to reprimand himself for not having replaced his flashlight batteries. Tom’s terror slowly began to take over as the light around him grew dimmer and dimmer and dimmer.

External or Internal?Type?Explain.

Text #5

Quotation:After the light in the cave was completely gone Tom began to stumble through the cave blindly cutting his hands on what appeared to be sharp rocks.

External or Internal?Type?Explain.

Text #6

Quotation: Tom found a dry spot to sit down in the dark and began to obsess over an argument he had had earlier in the day with his mother in which he had said, “I hope I never see you again!”

External or Internal?Type?Explain.

Conflict Assignment

•Take out a clean sheet of notebook paper.•Label your paper with a proper MLA heading. The title is Conflict Assignment.•Fold your paper vertically (hot dog style) to create two columns.•Label the column on the left External and the column on the right Internal.

Your paper should now look like this:

Susie Student

Mrs. Freeman

English II, 1st Hour

6 October 2014

Conflict Assignment

External Internal

Directions

Your task is to identify, label, and explain quotations that illustration external and internal conflicts in each of the passages we have read so far this year.

For “Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket,” you will need two (2) external and two (2) internal conflicts.

For “Occupation: Conductorette” you will need one (1) external and one (1) internal conflict.

For “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” you will need one (1) external and one (1) internal conflict.

For “The Monkey’s Paw” you will need one (1) external and one (1) internal conflict.

Example of what your paper will look like:

External Internal

1. “Tom’s mother was upset that he wanted to skip going to college in order to go spelunking in all of the world’s greatest caves before he turned thirty. Tom didn’t understand the big deal, he didn’t really believe in structured “learning” anyway.”

(Columbus 55)Type: Man vs. ManExplain: Tom and his mother

disagree about Tom’s plans for his future.

1. “Tom found a dry spot to sit down in the dark and began to obsess over an argument he had had earlier in the day with his mother in which he had said, ‘I hope I never see you again!’”(Columbus 54)Type: Man vs. SelfExplain: Tom is struggling with his own choices about how he handled a situation earlier in the day. He is regretting being so cruel to his mother.

* You will have a total of 5 external and 5 internal conflicts when you have correctly completed this assignment.