There are several individual conflicts that occur throughout the story. Here are six of the most readily apparent. The story is largely a case of man versus nature, and as such, several conflicts emerge between the characters and the sea. Most obviously present is the group of four's desperate struggle to keep the boat from turning over while they desperately wait for a boat to come rescue them. Another separate conflict of the same type, though individual instead of collective, is when the correspondent is trapped alone in a small current, certain he will die while the rest of the party survives.There is also the conflict of man versus man. For example, when the captain desperately tries to signal the men the group sees on shore, they are unable to decipher their meaning and become very frustrated with one another, bickering constantly. These frustrations also lead to a conflict of man versus self, which entails the sense of hopelessness and almost longing for death felt by the narrator and group. The fifth noticeable conflict is one of man versus God. The narrator develops a mindset of increasing frustration at the cruelty of his fate. He repeats a quote over the course of the story:
If I am going to lose my life to the sea why was I allowed to come this far and see sand and trees? Was I brought here merely to have my nose dragged away as I was about to taste the holy food of life?
This indicates a frustration with the god or gods that the narrator perceives as determining his fate, as though they are doing so out of spite or cruelty. However, this turns into a final, separate type of conflict when the narrator realizes that nature simply didn't concern itself with his fate. He realizes that whatever nature is, she is "completely not interested." This type of conflict could be seen as man versus the absence of a god, as it is an altogether more hopeless feeling than the anger and resentment he had felt previously.
No comments:
Post a Comment