The Purpose Of Conflict Flashcards
What is conflict?
Conflict is a struggle between opposing forces. The struggle is what makes up the events of a story. As a character tries to reach their goal, someone or something is stopping them.
What are the two types of conflicts commonly used?
External Conflict
Internal Conflict
What is the External Conflict?
- External Conflict deals with the obstacles the character faces in the external world.
- Usually this has to do with the characters goal. The character wants something from the world, but there are forces stopping them from getting it.
What is Internal Conflict?
- Internal Conflict deals with the internal choices a character must make and the emotional attachments the character has.
What is the purpose of story?
Stories exist to show us examples and metaphors of possible ways to live.
Stories may entertain, inform, or persuade, but ultimately stories exist to show us how to live and struggle through the deep questions about life.
“Meaning produces emotion”
What does meaning mean in a story?
Meaning is the values embedded in the story. Values are guides to life, how to live your life, what you think is worth living for and what you think is worth doing and what is not worth doing. Stories are guides on how to live your life.
What is the most important type of conflict?
Philosophical (moral) conflict
How are fictional characters like real life human beings?
Like human beings, characters move through their world with their own sets of values and worldviews. The world in which characters live challenges their values in different ways. This is what creates moral (philosophical) conflict. Other characters believe different things on how to live. As these different characters hold on to their different world views, their placed into conflict.
Examples of Philosophical conflict in Shawshank Redemption
Andy: I believe in having hope
Red: The world is too bad to have hope
Warden: I will take away your hope
Other characters believe different things on how to live. As these different characters hold on to their differing world views, they’re placed into conflict.
Quote by John Truby from the anatomy of story
“Great storytelling isn’t just conflict between characters. It’s conflict between characters and their values.”
How do films wrestle with different ideas and worldviews?
They do it by giving characters different worldviews or value systems that place them in conflict with the other characters. When stories use different characters to stand as different points of view in a philosophical conflict, meaning and depth is given to the story and each scene.
Andy Dufrense
He is the one who maintains hope even in dark circumstances. Even though he is put into prison for a crime he did not commit, he focuses on making the prison a more human place. 
Red
Red is constantly pulled between Andy’s ideas of hope and the things he’s seen inside the prison all these years. He wants to be hopeful but he struggles to embody it like Andy.
Bogs Diamond
He is an obstacle against the inner hope that Andy holds. Bogs makes life for Andy a living hell through beating him again and again. This challenges Andy’s belief about maintaining hope.
Brooks Halten
He is a man who gets to a completely hopeless place. He is finally released from prison into a world he no longer understands. He feels like he’s lost everything and gets to the point of compete and utter hopelessness. He is a major character that challenges reds beliefs. Red fears that he will be just as hopeless as Brooks on the outside.
