As unfortunate as it may be, we all love to read about human struggles. Without these struggles, there would be no books, no movies, or no stories worth telling. When we read a book we are reading to find out how the protagonist will resolve all of his problems. Problems arise due to conflict. Someone or something is trying to stop our glorious hero from getting their every desire. We read to see how the hero deals with these conflicts and how the hero grows to overcome them.
When we read, we can discern what is causing the main conflict in the story. Is it another person? Maybe it’s an alien race that wants to exterminate the human race. Is it the innermost self stopping the hero from reaching his goals? Each and every book includes one or more of the following forms of literary conflict. Here are the seven major types of literary conflict.
Person Versus Person
Everyone should know this form of conflict. We see this form in a lot of movies, shows and books. Person versus person conflict is where the protagonist of the book struggles against another person. This form can be physical, emotional or psychological battles between the two characters. One character or characters prevents the protagonist from reaching his goals. These books tend to be more plot focused.
This type of conflict can be your stereotypical good versus evil battle, such as Luke versus Darth Vader or Harry Potter versus Voldemort. It can also include less thought of stories like in romance stories like Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet want to marry but their families hate each other, so the main conflict revolves around them versus their family.
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Here are some other examples for person versus person conflict. Lord of the Flies by William Golding involves a group of children getting stranded on an island. Two children fight over power and control of the other boys on the island. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is about Gatsby versus Tom Buchanan fighting over the same woman.
Person Versus Self
In person versus self we read about the inner struggles of the protagonist. These struggles can involve their thoughts, feelings, beliefs, religious beliefs or difficult decisions the protagonist must make. This form of conflict often makes you form a personal connection with the main character because we read about their thoughts, feelings, and struggles we all might face in life.
This type of conflict often leads to personal growth, change, or self-discovery for the main character. Oftentimes, the protagonist faces a tough moral dilemma or gets over some personal obstacle. These can also be stories about overcoming mental illnesses or living with them. These books are way more focused on character and character development than with plot development.
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Hamlet by Shakespeare is about a young boy who struggles with his desire for revenge. While Hamlet wants revenge his doubt and indecisiveness come into play about if revenge is the best decision. Personally, this is one of my favorite works by Shakespeare. Disney’s Frozen involves person versus self conflict too. Elsa fears her icy powers will harm other people or people will view her as a monster. She ends up leaving the kingdom due to her own fears.
Person Versus Nature
Person versus nature are often books about survival or surviving in the wilderness. The main character must overcome natural hardships like wild animals, freezing temperatures, draughts, hurricanes and other natural disasters. The main character also faces issues involving hunger, dehydration and finding shelter.
This type of conflict often explores themes of survival, resilience, and how powerful the natural world is. This conflict can also be used to show effects of climate change and pollution on the environment. Also, as some people think, this type of conflict does not have to only involve earthly nature. It can involve characters surviving in space such as in Andy Weir’s, The Martian.
Moby Dick, by Herman Melville is one good example of person versus nature. The protagonist, Captain Ahab, hunts a giant white whale while facing hardships on the sea. Call of Wild, by Jack London is another book with person versus nature conflict. A domesticated dog called Buck must adapt to the harsh Canadian winters where he must learn to survive and fend for himself against other animals.
Person Versus Soceity
This is my second favorite form of conflict. Person versus society conflicts normally involve dystopias or imagined futures. The protagonist in these stories fight against the norms, beliefs, expectations of society or rules and laws set forth in society. This type of conflict often explores themes of social justice, conformity versus individuality and the laws and rules of society.
Our protagonist can struggle against the rules or societal pressure. They can be fighting against the establishment itself. Maybe they are fighting against a horrible world religion or unjust laws.
My two favorite classic novels that feature person versus society conflict are George Orwell’s 1984 and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. In 1984 the protagonist Winston Smith fights against a tyrannical government that controls every aspect of everyone’s lives. They control who they are at war with, who they hate, who they can love, and even attempt to control the thoughts of every person. In Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag lives in a society where books are banned. His job is to burn them. Guy starts reading as many books as he can to preserve knowledge against the government’s wishes.
Person Versus Technology
This form of conflict is another one of my favorites to read about. In this type of conflict, the protagonist struggles against the advances of technology or the misuse of technology. Some common themes explored in this type of conflict are over power, control or the impact of technology on society.
We often think about The Terminator where super advanced machines wage war on humans, but it can even be as simple as a grandparent struggling to learn about emojis on cell phones. The main character can fight against a specific device like a super computer or artificial intelligence or issue caused by a certain technology on society and humans as a whole.
2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clark, involves an artificial intelligence that takes over a spaceship. The protagonist, Dave Bowman, fights to regain control over the spaceship and save his crew’s lives. Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is another good example. The protagonist in the novel is a detective that hunts defective rouge androids that are indistinguishable from humans.
Person Versus Fate
In person versus fate conflicts, often the protagonist hears a prophecy from a god or supernatural creature like an oracle and tries to not fulfill it. The hero tries to avoid his destiny which leads to the prophecy getting fulfilled. These stories show how the forces of the universe are unavoidable.
Oftentimes, these stories are old Greek stories or Shakespearian tragedies. I have yet to read more modern books with this type of conflict, but if you know any comment below so i can give them a read.
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Shakespeare’s Macbeth is probably one of the most famous tales using this conflict. In Macbeth, Macbeth receives a pleasant prophecy, one he wants to happen. The prophecy told him he would become king. So naturally, Macbeth murders the king to take the throne. From there Macbeth becomes more and more paranoid and kills more people to stay in power, which eventually leads to his demise.
Person Versus the Supernatural
Some people lump together person versus fate and person versus supernatural because they are slightly similar. By lumping them together however, I believe it does not do this final conflict justice. Person versus the supernatural does not have to be about fate or destiny like the previous category. In this form of conflict the hero can face off against supernatural beings, such as, gods, monsters, eldritch horrors, the undead, monsters of any form, and much more.
Common genres that use person versus the supernatural are horror stories, action novels, or plain old mythology. Mythology used person versus supernatural to tell how the world worked before our current and advanced science. “Oh lightning? Yeah that’s my boy Zeus up there smiting someone.” That right there is person versus the supernatural. A lot of Stephen King novels have some form of person versus the supernatural as well.
In Conclusion
More complicated stories often have multiple types of conflict. Imagine a story where an evil scientist turns people into ghosts. The unlikely protagonist is scared of ghosts, but must fight his way through them to stop the scientist. Right there, the hero is facing himself because he is scared, along with the supernatural ghosts, and finally another person, the scientist.
If you are looking to write a story of your own, there are a couple places you could start. The characters and the setting is one great place to start. However, all characters in any setting face conflict. Picking the type of conflict you want your heroes to struggle with is the next step. Hopefully, this list helps you pick out the different types of conflicts in books or come up with your own conflicts for your own story.
Do you think I missed some major form of conflict? What is your favorite book where the main conflict is person versus nature? Leave a comment down below. We love to hear from you!
As always, Happy reading!