On The Sidewalk Bleeding Internal Conflict

Conflicts

No matter what story you read, there is always going to be some form conflict; they can be shown in many different ways. Either physically, or mentally. In the story “On The Sidewalk Bleeding,” Andy faces a lot of struggles in regards to him being a Royal. As well as Mary Maloney in “Lamb To The Slaughter,” she has a major conflict with herself because of the murder of her husband. Lastly, Hector in “A Concrete Garden” has a hard struggle with his own life, because of his parent's abusive relationship.

In “On the Sidewalk Bleeding,” Andy faces an inner conflict, that eventually leads to his death. In the event of his stabbing, he blames it all on the Guardians, but he then starts to question that statement. While Andy is bleeding

out, he starts to wonder why they stabbed him. “Had they stabbed him, Andy, or had they stabbed the jacket and the title?”(Hunter 9). Through his thinking, he realizes he was only stabbed because he was/is a Royal. The Guardians that stabbed him do not know him as Andy, but only as a Royal. The way that Andy “solves” his conflict is by removing his jacket before he dies, so the world sees him as Andy and not as a Royal. “He (Andy) rolled away from the jacket and lay quite still, breathing heavily, listening to the sound of the rain and thinking: Rain is sweet, I’m Andy.”(Hunter 9-10). Unfortunately, his downfall arises from him doing that, and he dies. Through his attempt and struggle, people sadly still viewed him as a Royal and not as Andy. in the end, he shows that having a battle with self-identity can lead to consequences. As Andy tried to overcome gang rivalry, Mary Maloney (the main character in Lamb To The Slaughter) struggles with the outcome of her husband’s murder.

In this story, Mary Maloney suffers from an inner conflict, which leads to her downfall, and eventually her own. When Patrick Maloney (her husband) got home, it started off as a normal (Grammarly says' normal' is being overused, try "standard" 'regular' or 'typical') regular night. But, there was a lot of tension between the two (especially coming from Patrick) which eventually lead to Patrick telling her some devastating news. After she heard the news, she was almost in shock, and acted as nothing happened and continued to make supper for the both of them. She went down into the basement and got a frozen leg of lamb to make for dinner. She then came back upstairs and met with Patrick in the living room. “She swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air, and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head.”(Dahl 10). Mary is in too much shock to realize that she just killed her husband, so she continued to place the lamb in the oven to cook it. She then proceeds to get ready to leave the house and go to the grocery store, to get items for dinner thus creating an alibi. When she got back, it finally hit her that her husband was dead, so she then became all hysterical and disoriented and called the police. “Quick! Come quick! Patrick’s dead!”(Dahl 15). When the police arrived, they confirmed his death and Mary told them “what happened” on her side of the story. Afterwards, Officer Jack Noonan found a patch of congealed blood on the back of Patrick’s head, that raised some suspicions. After that discovery, more people came to the house to investigate, but no verdict was made (try 'has been made'). Eventually when the lamb was done cooking, Mary “forced them” to eat it, getting rid of the murder weapon. Unfortunately, she would end up being caught because of the congealed blood left on Patrick’s head, leading to her downfall. Afterall, she shows that being “insecure” and not mentally stable can have serious effects/consequences. Now as mary struggles with her family issues, there is also Hector whos struggling with his very own as well.

In this final story, called “A Concrete Garden,” there is a young boy named Hector.

Hector struggles with a fair amount of both external/internal conflict in his life. He does not live in the best neighbourhood, “I take stock of his neighbourhood: grubby posters hang from chain link fences, cigarette buds carpet the sidewalk,...” (Ferrari 1). Besides living in a bad neighbourhood, he is also struggling with family issues. His abusive father just left him and his mother, leaving his mom in a “not-so-good” place/mindset, so he has to stay home and away from school/activities to watch after her and make sure she is okay. When Hectors English teacher stumbles upon him sitting on the ground playing with bright, beautiful flowers planted in concrete, the two of them start talking. Hector then tells the teacher everything that has happened to him so far. Leading up to Hector’s “downfall,” he asks “You ever think there could be other worlds? You know like ours but different?” (Ferrari 2). Hector asks this because he’s losing hope. He wants to be happy, lives with his family, and be okay, but he can not do that here. Hector believes that there is another world (an Alternate Universe) where he is happy, and everything is okay. He explains that all to his teacher, but the more he talks about it, the more hopeless he seems/sounds. Eventually, the two need to part ways because there is a police pursuit happening near them. Hector shows and proves that giving up is not always an option, and to believe in better

things.

Andy, Hector, and Mary all meet their downfall due to an internal conflict. First, Andy almost “gets over” his identity crisis, but dies as a result of doing so. Second, Mary kills her husband over a result of the bad news, but would eventually end up getting caught. Lastly, Hector “reaches out for help” from his teacher, but is just left hopeless once again. In the end, the stories may be short, but they give the audience/readers a chance to understand/imagine their struggles. Through these stories, we have learned that the way someone approaches their inner conflict can and will affect their future forever.