In the three stories To Build a Fire, The Use of Force, and A and P there are
some different conflicts. A conflict is struggle between two or more objects. In
these stories the three different conflicts are man versus nature, man versus
man, and man versus self. The three stories that contain these conflicts are To
Build a Fire by Jack London, The Use of Force by Williams Carlos Williams, and A
and P by John Updike. The first story to talk about is To Build a Fire, then The
Use of Force, and lastly A and P. The story To Build a Fire by London has one of
the most unpredictable conflicts in it. The conflict in this story is man versus
nature. The two forces in the story are the man and the freezing cold. In the
story a man is trying to get to his destination and the cold weather is stopping
him from making it their. To beat the cold the man tries to forget about being
cold, chew tobacco and start a fire to stay warm. The cold does defend it by
freezing the tobacco on his beard and putting out the fire with some snow.
Through out this struggle between man versus nature, nature comes out
victorious. In the story The Use of Force the conflict is probably the most
common in stories. In this story by williams, he uses man versus man conflict.
The doctor and the young girl are the two forces that are going against each
other. The problem is that the doctor is trying to figure out why the girl is
sick but he can’t because she will not open her mouth. The three ways the
doctor tried to over come this problem was to get her to believe that he was
there to help, get the parents to help him and also tried to use a spatula. The
girl still didn’t open her mouth but when she did , she broke the spatula. All
though she broke the spatula, the doctor finally came and with the upper hand.
In Updike’s story A and P the conflict is very unusual. The conflict in this
story is man versus self. The two forces in this story are Sammy economic well
being and his conscious. The problem is Sammy needs the job for money but his
conscious takes over. Sammy tries to tell himself that he needs the job for
money and his boss is friends with his parents but the conscious fights back
with feelings for the girls, a chance to get in good with the girls and the job
is boring any way. At the end of this conflict between man versus self, self
ends up winning. In these stories you can see the variety of conflicts that may
arise. The conflicts man versus nature, man versus man, and man versus self are
very important tools to good story. Conflicts just to the story it is important
to the plot.