Saturday, April 12, 2014

Real conflicts do not offer easy resolutions or neat closureIs this statement true and to what extent. What are some 'worldy' examples of this?...

I agree with the first post.  I don't think the definition
of a "real" conflict is that it was difficult to solve.  I might substitute the word
"major" or "significant" for "real" here.


Consider that
"conflict" tends to grow with age.  I think of the first time a boy broke my heart in
high school.  Looking back now, the situation is almost laughable,
but at the time, it was a very real conflict for me.  It
was real because it was the first time it happened - and certainly my feelings were
real.  But that is how life is.  Think about it.  Every time we experience a conflict
that is bigger than the last - it is the biggest conflict of our lives thus far.  But as
age and maturity bring life difficulty - suddenly past problems seem smaller and
smaller.  Does that make them any less real?


A
Tree Grows in Brooklyn
is almost built on this premise.  As Francie grows up
- each age holds different challenges - which at the time she experiences them, are very
real - and while some of them are overcome much easier than others, at the time she
experiences them they are always the most difficult things she's experienced so far in
life.  At the very end of the novel she and her brother reminisce on their childhood. 
They discuss how lucky their little sister is because her life is going to be so easy
compared to their lives.   But then they laugh when the realize it will also be a lot
less fun.

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