Second Post: Monday, October 7, 2013

Choice #11: Conflict: Identify the conflict in the novel/film and explore this.

Spoiler Alert:

Book: Elijah of Buxton

Elijah is in trouble when Mr. Leroy takes Elijah and is faced with more of a coming of age conflict, this is because he has to grow up fast, despite all of the doings in the past. Mr Leroy takes him to Detroit to try and catch up with the preacher, who has stolen thousands of dollars that was saved to buy Mr Leroy's family's freedom. Both Elijah and Mr. Leroy go on a pursuit together, chasing after The Preacher who has an incentive in stealing money that once belonged to Mr Leroy himself. Comparing this part of the book, in which The Preacher has slowly became the bad guy, to the beginning of the book, where The Preacher is helping Elijah, the conflict is to never trust somebody that may seem suspicious, because in the beginning of the book, The Preacher gives away that he is a lier because he joked about Elijah about the hooper snakes, and created a fuss when there actually was no such thing. Although the Preacher shoots the man who was accompanying them, who was from Buxton, Elijah and Mr. Leroy still persist in tracking the Preacher down. Tragically, Mr. Leroy suffers a death from a heart attack, and Elijah is left to continue onwards with his pursuit on finding the Preacher. Another important conflict comes here, and this is when Elijah is faced with the choice to continue onwards or to give up the pursuit,  there is no point in continuing because the man he was helping was no longer alive, but Elijah comes to the conclusion that he is going to "continue Mr Leroy's legacy" in a way. Elijah does manage to find The Preacher after a while, but at the same time finds a family of escaped slaves, one of them named Mrs. Chloe. Elijah leaves without helping Mrs. Chloe, Mrs Chloe's husband Kamau, Kamau and Mrs Chloe's daughter Hope, and two other slaves in an attempt to look for assistance to finish tracking down The Preacher. Just before Elijah decides to start his journey back to Buxton alone, he feels the need to try and help Mrs. Chloe so he goes back to her and the other slaves in the barn. During the moment, Elijah tries to assess the problem like an adult would, and this is when the coming of age conflict comes to place, Elijah ends up lying to help rescue the baby, and he returns back to Buxton with the baby.

Movie: Toy Story (1995)

The movie Toy Story revolves around two main dolls, Woody and Buzz Light Year. Woody, a cowboy string doll has earned his spot as being the favorite toy of a six-year old Andy. The movie starts unfolding when Buzz Light Year, a space ranger action figure, takes Woody's spot for being the favored doll, this shakes Woody's confidence. In the movie Toy Story, there are many different conflicts that happen during the movie, but I have chosen two conflicts to discuss. The first conflict is an internal conflict, when Woody is sad and puzzled because he has been replaced by Andy as being the favorite toy with Buzz Light year. This internal conflict develops into the main conflict of the story, where Woody is accused of killing Buzz light year when Woody and Buzz get into a fight and Buzz falls out of a window. Woody is then faced to go outside and help to find Buzz so that they can both return to Andy's room, but they get into all sorts of other conflicts in the outside, the main one being when they get stuck in Sid's house, who is a toy torturer and the adventure of trying to escape from that house begins. Sid's house is the beginning of an external conflict, and is a battle between good vs. evil, together, Woody and Buzz must push through the obstacles that are preventing them from getting to Andy's house safely, including defeating Sid and saving the other toys.