Conflict in novels
公共管理学院 行政管理系 柯慧珑（20071303022） 陈素静（20071303014）
You can solve a mathematical question with geometrically or algebraically; you
can take a bus to school or you can take subway to school. Similarly, there are
always various angles to observe a certain problem or issue. In my view, it is hard
to understand or change the position with others, then the conflicts occurs.
Conflicts are inescapable in reality.
“Little women” is set in the mid-19th century, it describes a family of four
daughters love each other, hard-working, self-esteem and independence. When
I first read it, I thought Jo would marry Laurie, however, the story did not
develop as I thought. Sometimes fate can not be changed when you look back,
so, we must grasp our life. There is a conflict between the ideal with reality. The
reality always goes toward the opposite direction instead the way you hope. So,
we should optimistic about the future of our life although there are a lot of
difficulties lies on the way.
Secondly, we would like to talk something details about the conflict in the
“The Joy Luck Club” written by Amy Tan. The story is represents the process of
misunderstanding、conflicts、understanding and blending between the mothers
with the daughters. The Joy Luck Club mothers come from the Chinese
traditional families while their daughters are born in America, they are the
second generation immigrants, so there are often misunderstandings between
the mothers and the daughters. In order to make their daughters know them
and the Chinese culture, the mothers have made efforts to remove their
differences. They seize every opportunity to tell their daughters their past
experiences, demonstrate their courage to challenge the feudal society and
never stop extending maternal love to their daughters.
In this novel, the mothers show their love for their daughters by planning
the daughters’ future and interfering in their activities. To mothers, they have
the compulsory and responsibility to train their daughters to become perfect
person. They want to make their daughters combine the “American Context”
with “Chinese Personality” perfectly. Their daughters, however, are born and
grow up in America, and are deeply affected by America moral standards and
acting principles. But in America, children always do not follow all that their
parents tell them and behave what they want to. So we think the
misunderstanding comes from cultural differences.
In the book King Lear, both King Lear and Cordelia don’t understand how love
applies in real life, which causes the misunderstanding between the father and
daughter. I believe that Cordelia is right to refuse to compliment his father at that
situation. Just as what she mentions to Lear “You have begot me, bred me, loved me:
I Return those duties back as are right fit, Obey you, love you, and most honor you.”,
beyond her sisters, Cordelia loves his father with actions instead of words. It is
oblivious that Lear has a wrong understanding of love, which causes his loss of a
loyal daughter and the miseries of Cordelia.
It is always hard to change the position with another person and think
with his way, so there are always misunderstandings in our lives. As a person
involved in a situation in the story, it is extremely difficult to speak and act
calmly with anger and anxiety. Only as the third person, I can analyze the issue
logically. But in our lives, love cannot be analyzed, because logic, obligation and
justice are not love, understanding is love.