"I'll never be the kind of daughter you want me to be!" "Only two kinds of daughters," she shouted in Chinese. "You want me to be something that I'm not!" I sobbed. Her chest was heaving even more and her mouth was open, smiling crazily as if she were pleased I was crying. I was sobbing by now, looking at her bitterly. She lifted me up and onto the hard bench. She was frighteningly strong, half pulling, half carrying me toward the piano as I kicked the throw rugs under my feet. She yanked me by the arm, pulled me off the floor, snapped off the TV. So this was what had been inside me all along. "No!" I said, and I now felt stronger, as if my true self had finally emerged. I saw her chest was heaving up and down in an angry way. The entertainment value becomes deeper and richer when the audience is able to walk away with a new perspective on their own philosophical conflicts.Read the passage from "Two Kinds." She walked over and stood in front of the TV. So, in your storytelling, think about what each character believes and how a challenge to those beliefs will create meaningful and engaging conflict. But this is not the main purpose of story or conflict.Įven the most entertaining movies say something about life, or at the very least, the characters’ opposing beliefs are what engages the audience. People go to the movies to be entertained and that’s just a fact. Yes, your stories and conflicts do have to be entertaining. So if you're struggling with the theme of the story, or what you're really trying to say, odds are you haven't determined your philosophical conflict. But I like this label because it reminds us that conflict is always about opposing belief systems - the real conflict is broad and philosophical, but it is up to us to externalize it in specific and external ways if we want to use film as our medium. Not every filmmaker or screenwriter labels it as a philosophical conflict, and you can call it whatever you want. This change (or inability to change) demonstrates the theme or resolves the philosophical conflict. So, when a character overcomes enough obstacles that challenge their belief system, they typically come out the other side, changed. If the character received everything they wanted from the beginning, there wouldn’t be a story. A character’s goals and actions are dictated by their personal beliefs and what they want. If the writer has something valuable to say about life or how to live it, conflict is a great tool to show these competing viewpoints.Ĭonflict introduces opposing belief systems, wants, or goals not just to entertain the viewer, but to show the character another worldview. Mowery discusses how stories exemplify all of the possible ways to live, often raising questions about how to live through different characters’ viewpoints. We watch or read stories because we want to see characters encounter the same moral and philosophical obstacles that we face in our own lives. Stories explore these belief systems while conflicts help challenge them. The way you personally choose to live your life comes from your belief system. And we can’t really know the purpose of conflict until we know the purpose of a story. To fully understand conflict, we have to define the purpose of conflict in a story. Why is Conflict Important in Stories What is the purpose of conflict?
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