The plot of a story is the action. The plot revolves around a conflict or problem. There are five main types of conflicts:
- Person vs. person (problem with another character)
- Person vs. society (problem with the laws or beliefs of a group)
- Person vs. nature (problem with force of nature such as a blizzard)
- Person vs. self (problem with deciding what to do or think)
- Person vs. fate (problem that seems to be uncontrollable)
That struggle builds until it reaches a crisis or a turning point. That moment is the climax.
- Describe one conflict in the novel.
- How would you have reacted if you were facing that same conflict?
- Respond to a classmate's comment about the conflict.
Example:
I think that the main conflict in The Summer of the Swans is that Charlie wanders off and Sara has to go find him. This is a a person vs. person conflict because she is having a problem with another person. I also think it might be a person vs. self because she had to decide what to do about it. I think I would have done the same thing. I would have felt too guilty if something had happened to him and I didn't do anything about it.
