Firstly, one of the many ways conflict develops the characters’ is through their struggles with each other. At the beginning of the novel, Keisha’s struggle with Ms. Hill introduces her character into the novel. One day, Keisha is called down to the office alongside other Primm students, she secretly hopes it is because of her application to Avery University. In reality, the students are called down to the office because Ms. Hill has put them into SCARF (Save the Children At-Risk Foundation), because of this Keisha is now unable to apply for Avery. Keisha gets into an argument about Avery with Ms. Hill which escalates fairly quickly: “I needed to get to her head. My fingers curled around her long, hay-looking hair and I snatched my hand back …show more content…
triumphant” (Coleman 18). When Keisha attacks Ms. Hill her personality is revealed. Instead of collecting her thoughts and handling the situation in a more level-headed manner, which would have been the right thing to do, Keisha acts on impulse. As a result of her impulsiveness, she does not seem to realize how inappropriate her action towards Ms. Hill really is. Keisha is also a very ambitious girl, so when the opportunity to change her life is taken away from her she simply acts on it without thinking. Although, attacking a school guidance counselor is not the right thing to do, it sure does get her point across. In addition, Keisha’s struggles with the white girls at her first swim meet develops her character.
Until Keisha and Betty arrive at their first swim meet in Alabama, they are not aware of the fact that they are going to be competing against only white girls. Being the only two black girls at the swim meet, Keisha and Betty felt out of place. Suddenly, one white girl walks up to the two of them and asks if they are going to be wearing swim caps in the pool, Keisha replies, “Trying my best to smile, I said, “Sure. We always wear our caps to swim. No problem’” (123). When Keisha responds to the white girl with a strange level of calmness, it shows her containing herself. While talking to the white girl Keisha uses short sentences to get her point across, trying to avoid as much conflict as possible. On the other hand, when Keisha attacks Ms. Hill she had no problem, but while talking back to the white girls she forces herself not to say much this is because Keisha did not want the white girls to think bad of her and Betty just because they are black. Whereas, Betty does not care what they think about her as long as she beats them in the competition. As a whole, around white people Keisha and Betty act like polar …show more content…
opposites. Furthermore, Keisha’s struggle with Jeebie changes Keisha’s character.
One day in the middle of the night Keisha decides to follow Mama to Lion’s Den, but what she does not know is that she is followed by Jeebie. As she is hiding behind a car trying to spy on Mama, Jeebie grabs her and tries to rape her; Keisha struggles with him, but he is unsuccessful when Mr. Hakim saves her. Later on, that same night when she goes home and talks to Rhenda about her experience with Jeebie she says, “’I honestly thought about not even fighting Jeebie. Just let him rape me and I have his funky baby and forget all this dreaming stuff. It don’t work’” (211). When Keisha is almost raped by Jeebie she is furiously fighting against him, but when Keisha goes home she says that she actually thought about not fighting. Frankly, in Keisha’s emotional situation in terms of everything going on with Betty, Mama, Malik, and then Jeebie, her thought of going through with the rape is expected. Jeebie attempting to rape her could even be considered her breaking point, where she just gives up on life, and truly it is. She gives up on everything she had planned for herself, the Olympics and Avery. The next day, Keisha does not attend her swimming practice, because of the bruises on her body. This one event changed Keisha’s life, but not for the better. Given these facts, Keisha’s struggles with other characters throughout the novel develop her character in many
ways.
First, the author uses conflict to show what the characters have to overcome throughout the course of the story, such as Mrs. Baker forcing Holling to do chores at school and
When Twyla and Roberta first meet, there is already a racial divide. This is made evident by their different ethnicities and Twyla’s skepticism brought on by her mother’s comment about their hair “smelling funny (Morrison 31).” Although this misconception might not have directly influenced their friendship, it is stated that Twyla and Roberta did not get along in the beginning and Twyla even comments that her mom would not like the set-up; it was not until they
The second conflict I found was character vs. self. Prue is fighting with herself about being able to unite the two makers of the Mobius Cog. She’s afraid that she wasn’t meant for this job and that innocent people have died for a hopeless cause. Prue thinks that she can’t save the people
Lily’s biases in The Secret Life Of Bees have altered greatly; she now knows that people of color have the ability to fend for themselves, and that they can be strong and influential people. The most outstanding thing that has caused Lily’s biases to change is the Boatwright sisters. August Boatwright was the person that took Lily by surprise, Lily was raised with this false philosophy that because she was white, she was superior, more intelligent than African Americans. “At my school they made fun of colored people’s lips and noses. I myself laughed at these jokes, hoping to fit in.
2) What is the main conflict in the book? Is it external or internal? How is this conflict resolved throughout the course of the book?
Development: The narrative follows part of these students' lives during a year at college, they are in each other's lives whether they know it or not. There are parallels drawn between them as the narrative progresses: Peace V War, Aggression V Pacifism, sides are taken and the racial lines are clear- stick to your own group like glue. How they fit in with the rest of the college population, Malik does this better than Remy and Kristen- he heads straight for the black population.
Firstly let us consider conflict. In each act of the play, we see the overpowering desire to belong leading to a climax of conflict amongst the characters, which has the consequence of exclusion. Conflict is a successful literary technique, as it engages the audience and focuses our attention on the issue of conflict and exclusion, brought about by the characters’ desires to be accepted by their community.
Janie’s first discovery about herself comes when she is a child. She is around the age of six when she realizes that she is colored. Janie’s confusion about her race is based on the reasoning that all her peers and the kids she grows up with are white. Janie and her Nanny live in the backyard of the white people that her Nanny works for. When Janie does not recognize herself on the picture that is taken by a photographer, the others find it funny and laughs, leaving Janie feeling humiliated. This racial discovery is not “social prejudice or personal meanness but affection” (Cooke 140). Janie is often teased at school because she lives with the white people and dresses better than the other colored kids. Even though the kids that tease her were all colored, this begins Janie’s experience to racial discrimination.
As you can see, there are a lot of major internal conflicts. However, there are many more not so important conflicts that weren’t listed! Ranging from racism to loneliness, the characters in this novel have gone through a lot, physically and mentally. As the novel progresses all the characters seem to go from a negative, depressed mental state to a positive and loving one. Jefferson dies with courage because Grant was able to crack Jefferson and help him, which also ended up helping himself. Miss Emma and Tante Lou are now at peace thanks to Grant’s affect on Jefferson. The only reason the novel ended with everybody in a positive state of mind is due the decisions and actions made because of the internal conflict. In conclusion, internal conflicts are very important to the story causing conflicts and plot twists to interest the reader and pull the novel together.
The following day the family heads off to Florida. Another major point of irony happens as the story revolves around the grandmothers traditional southern values of respect for other people; especially elders, respect for your home and country. At the same moment as the grandmother is lecturing her grand kids about respecting their home state she sees a young Negro boy and says: “Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!” (Pg 208). Her hypocrisy becomes evident as she wants the family to do what she says not what she does.
Those two events may seem like nothing but it shows how even at the early age of 8, children are taught to spot the differences in race instead of judging people by their character. Directing after this Twyla mentions how her and Roberta “looked like salt and pepper standing there and that’s what the other kids called us sometimes” (202). On the first page of this short story we already have 3 example of race dictating how the characters think and act. With the third one which mentions salt which is white and pepper which is black we understand that one girl is white and one girl is black. The brilliance of this story is that we never get a clear cut answer on which girl is which. Toni Morrison gives us clues and hints but never comes out and says it. This leaves it up to us to figure it out for ourselves. The next example of how race influences our characters is very telling. When Twyla’s mother and Roberta’s mother meeting we see not only race influencing the characters but, how the parents can pass it down to the next generation. This takes places when the mothers come to the orphanage for chapel and Twyla describes to the reader Roberta’s mother being “bigger than any man
Branching from that, Stella has an inner conflict because she does not know whether to side with her husband or her sister in each situation. Blanche and Mitch have a conflict because their original plans of getting married are destroyed when Stanley reveals her past.... ... middle of paper ... ... Blanche came to town on a streetcar because she was ostracized in her old home as a result of her desires.
I believe the conflict in the story is an internal one. I think it is the conflict between the old woman's will power and Mother Nature. She encounters many obstacles that would influence most people to give up but she has motivation to get her task done. These encounters include a bush catching onto her dress, a scarecrow frightening her and discouragement from a white man. She also had to climb hills, cross streams and crawl under barbed wire fences which is certainly not considered an easy task for an elderly woman.. If I was forced to deal with these obstacles I know that I would most likely have turned around but her will power was too strong to let Mother Nature win.
A major conflict near the end of the story is between Tyler and the narrator. The narrator discovered Tyler was a figment of his imagination and he wanted to stop him. The narrator wanted to get rid of Tyler, end Project Mayhem, and all of the Fight Clubs. Tyler did not want to leave and this conflict was resolved with the narrator shooting himself and killing Tyler. Another conflict in the story was between Marla, Tyler and the narrator. The narrator was secretly jealous of the relationship between Marla and Tyler. He wanted to be the one in a relationship with Marla Singer. The narrator did not realize until near the end of the novel that he and Tyler shared the same body and that Marla believed he was Tyler.
Conflict first arises when Blanche arrives at the Kowalski household and Stanley's authority over his home is questioned. Stanley has always had authority and control of his home and also his wife Stella. When Blanche arrives he feels that he is being invaded and doesn't agree with it. His "rat race" style of life doesn't match with Blanches but has somehow converted Stella. One of the main themes about conflict is that Stanley and Blanche are in a battle to win Stella and neither of them will give her up.