by Helen Jacey
CULTURAL CONFLICT
The first thing to be aware of is how your own cultural attitudes and expectations will have an impact on your writing. Your own cultural values will affect
Your heroine’s culture.
Your own cultural background.
The culture of the audience you want to reach.
Let’s take a closer look at two very different heroines’ stories to illustrate this point. The first film is At Five in the Afternoon. The story is set in post-9/11 Afghanistan and follows the dreams of Nogreh, who decides she wants to be president of Afghanistan. Every kind of obstacle is against her dream. Her father is a religious fundamentalist who is against education of women. The family has no money. The community has very rigid and repressive codes for female behavior. Nogreh secretly wears white high-heeled shoes under her burqa as an act of defiance and to make her feel feminine in a way that isn’t allowed in her culture. When she slips the shoes on, even though they are ingrained with mud and battered, you sense she feels empowered by one small step away from her oppressive existence. To some audiences, her old shoes could seem like pathetic symbols of a life Nogreh will never be able to have; to others, they might represent hope. Although Nogreh starts out with a dream, it’s her gradual sense of disillusion that breaks her. She finally accepts that her aspirations are futile in the male-dominated and fundamentalist system she lives under.
The second is Confessions of a Shopaholic. The heroine Rebecca has an uncontrollable addiction to fashion and brand labels in Manhattan. The film is targeted at young female audiences in a Western culture that is highly materialistic, and where a woman’s identity is related to what she owns, wears, and looks like. Rebecca’s dream is indulging her need for irresistible clothing. Her obstacles are more internal. She has an addiction to compulsive spending, which is only encouraged by the outside world.
As you can see, Conflict and obstacles are very different. For Nogreh, the most powerful forms of Conflict are external for most of the story, until she gives up. Her own defeatism becomes an internal form of Conflict. But the audience might think she’s seen the light and got real.
For Rebecca, her debt and her compulsive spending are problems she must battle, along with the constant threat of the debt collector. But Rebecca chooses to be in denial about the mess she’s in. Her internal Conflict, her blind spot, generates most of the external problems in her world. She has to keep lying to everyone else, because she’s lying to herself Rebecca has freedom of choice to stop, whereas Nogreh has no power. Nogreh’s main source of Conflict is external. It leads to her having internal Conflict about the futility of her hopes and dreams.
As you can see from both examples, Conflict is a very powerful element in a heroine’s story. Using Conflict effectively boils down to you working out how you want your audience to react to your heroine’s situation. Ask yourself
Do you want your audience to sympathize with your heroine’s plight?
Do you want your audience to question your heroine’s motives and hope that she sees the light?
Do you want her to transform the world she lives in, so she can be free in any area of her life?
Do you want your audience to question the values of the world we live in?
How you develop Conflict in your story will have an impact on the message of your story. By getting to know the layers of Conflict, and learning how they can function, you can make sure Conflict works to support your story intentions.
THE LAYERS OF CONFLICT
The layers of Conflict is a model that can help you work out the obstacles found in all levels of your heroine’s life. For example, if you want to write about a girl’s emotional and physical battle with bulimia, then it is a good idea to think about in what ways her problem is both affected by and affects her closest relationships, her family, her community, and the wider culture.
By thinking each layer through, you will be able to make the right creative choices for your story. The layers of Conflict can help you strengthen your characters, so you really know what each character is up against. They can also help you intensify your story’s theme and metaphoric wound. The layers of Conflict are:
Layer 1: Internal Conflict
Layer 2: Significant Other Conflict
Layer 3: Family Conflict
Layer 4: Community Conflict
Layer 5: Culture Conflict
Layer 6: Nation Conflict
Layer 7: World Conflict
Layer 1: Internal Conflict
This layer reflects the most private, deepest internal Conflict your heroine feels. It represents her most private self. It is the scar tissue that she tries to hide from the world. Heroines who are emotionally wounded, trapped in a situation or a culture that damages their sense of identity, have a battle between expectations and how they really want to live their lives, or have deep ambivalence about choices they are faced with, are all experiencing internal Conflict.
Internal Conflict is the hardest Conflict to write because it is the thoughts and feelings going on inside your heroine’s mind. You have to think about the external ways a heroine might reveal her internal Conflict. If you don’t, you will end up relying on the brilliance of the actress playing her. Lee’s self-mutilation in Secretary is a good example of a heroine dealing with very complex internal Conflicts. Lee is getting a sense of release by cutting herself.
Stories that emphasize internal Conflict above all other layers can be very powerful viewing experiences. A great deal of contemporary French films are all about the heroine’s internal state of mind and follow the heroine as she inwardly processes her life and relationships. I’ve Loved You So Long, Leaving, Villa Amalia, Romance, and A Ma Soeur! are all great examples.
Layer 2: Significant Other Conflict
The second layer relates the Conflict generated by your heroine’s relationship with her significant other. This does not have to be her lover. It is the person in the story your heroine has the closest relationship with, good or bad. It can be the person she is trying to be close to, with whom she has the most long-standing relationship, or is leaving. It can also be a parent, child, sibling, boss, or colleague — it entirely depends on your story.
The Conflict generated by this relationship can take many forms. These include wanting to love or be loved; not realizing they are in love; parent/child dynamics; professional rivalry; betrayal; jealousy; envy; loss; abuse; and victimization. It covers the whole range of emotions that the significant other can trigger in your heroine. The Painted Veil is a great example of the many different types of Conflict a significant other can create for a heroine. In the course of one story, Kitty uses her husband; despises him; cheats on him; is dependent on him; begins to get to know him; becomes angry with him; ultimately falls deeply in love with him; and loses him to cholera. Sometimes, in the course of your story, your heroine’s significant other will change. In The Devil Wears Prada, Andrea’s significant other starts out as Nate, her boyfriend. But he is soon overtaken in this role by Miranda, her controlling boss.
Layer 3: Family Conflict
The third layer relates to your heroine’s family and the problems that family life and relationships can cause. The “family” can mean who your heroine thinks of as her real family. Sometimes we choose who we consider as family, particularly if family life has been hateful or abusive, or if you’ve lost all your real family. This doesn’t mean you can ever entirely forget your real family, but you can get love and support in a family way from other people. As many women’s lives revolve around their families in their role as mothers, the family is a very common source of Conflict in heroines’ stories. If she loves them or hates them, your heroine’s family will be a massive factor in who she is.
Family Conflict can simply take the form of unresolved issues in your heroine’s backstory, and these could be spilling out into the story by her way of handling problems in the here and now. Family life gives your heroine her earliest experiences and role models. She has been
formed by these, so it pays to know the good, the bad, and the ugly in your heroine’s life. Most of Precious’ emotional problems stem from her immediate family members. Orphans, adopted children, and sci-fi-manufactured children will have wildly different experiences of family life.
Layer 4: Community Conflict
The fourth layer relates to the community your heroine belongs to. This can be the actual area or her work environment. It’s basically her life in a wider setting, beyond the emotional sphere of her family environment. If your heroine’s significant other is someone she works with, then lots of additional Conflict can be caused in her professional community. Freedom Writers is a great example of a heroine overcoming numerous obstacles in her work with deprived teenagers. Problems can take the form of professional rivalry; failure; loss of status in the community; not fitting in with the community’s values and mores; and annihilation of the community through war or illness. Many tragic love stories are caused by the community not being able to tolerate the heroine’s love affair.
Layer 5: Culture Conflict
Cultural values can cause big problems for your heroine if she doesn’t ft in with these, or she can’t stop questioning them. The problems caused by cultural values can create a great deal of internal Conflict. For example, for many women who do not ft conventional aspects of beauty, the pressure to be slim, young, and beautiful can take its toll. In The Truth About Cats & Dogs, the heroine Abby, a radio presenter, feels too fat and ugly to take her chances with a sexy guy who listens to her show and who has fallen in love with her personality. Inadequacy rules the day, and the presenter persuades her conventionally attractive but highly unintelligent friend to pretend to be her, with disastrous consequences.
Pressure to marry, stay married, and be a good mother can all create massive problems for your heroine if she’s in a bad situation. Sexism and racism are also cultural values that might affect her life negatively. Being from a good enough family, having the right education, and knowing social etiquette are at the end of the day privileged circumstances that your heroine might not be lucky enough to have been born with.
Layer 6: Nation Conflict
The Conflict created at the national level in a story is usually obvious from the lives of the women characters. What is going on for women in a country at a particular time in history is the main issue here. A country’s laws and policies go a long way to shaping our lives as women, from reproduction to equality in the workplace. Some of the problems confronting your heroine might be created by the real conditions of the country in which she lives. It can be a good idea to think about the reality of your women’s characters lives. North Country and Erin Brockovich are good examples of women using the American legal system in order to make changes to improve women’s and families’ lives in the U.S.
On a lighter level, The Proposal shows Margaret in a full-on battle with the U.S. immigration services that want to deport her. Her ruthless decision to force her male secretary to marry her gives Margaret problems on every level. From internalized guilt, hostility with an angry significant other, to acting illegally, Margaret is more than preoccupied.
Layer 7: World Conflict
Stories can take on a wide dimension if a sense of the world can somehow be conveyed. All countries have a specific position in the world order, the most obvious examples of the Conflict generated by this position are found in war films. Hannah in The English Patient loses her Canadian lover due to armed Conflict. Elizabeth I wages war and defends her country in Elizabeth and the sequel, Elizabeth: The Golden Age. The writers of Confessions of a Shopaholic could have given a sense of the world by referring to the sweat shops of developing countries producing many brand name goods. Frozen River follows a Mohawk woman and a poor white woman taking huge risks to try to improve their family situations by smuggling immigrants into the U.S.
Let’s take a look at two very different heroines’ stories to see the layers of Conflict at work — the mainstream studio film Twilight and the low-budget Peruvian film The Milk of Sorrow.
Twilight
Internal Conflict
Bella is one of those rare heroines who knows what she wants — to love Edward Cullen, a gorgeous hunk of a vampire. She doesn’t care that he’s a vampire, and by the end of the narrative, she wants to become one too so they can be together forever. Her main internal Conflict is the fact that, by loving Edward, complications have occurred and Bella’s family is now in jeopardy. Neither can she tell her family about her love. It is too shocking, and they would take action to remove her from Forks where she lives.
Significant Other Conflict
This is the primary source of Conflict in Twilight. There is a forbidden and impossible aspect to their love for each other. Edward’s desire for human blood might make him want to kill her. If that wasn’t enough, Edward’s love of Bella and need to protect her has led him to kill another vampire. This threatens Bella because other vampires now want to kill her in revenge.
Family Conflict
Bella’s family situation also causes her some different kinds of Conflict. She’s had to adjust to a new family situation as her mother has remarried. Although her stepfather, a professional sportsman, is nice, Bella knows that it is not fair on her mother not to travel with him. So Bella experiences a loss of life with her mother by moving in with her father in Forks.
Community Conflict
The community of Forks is riddled with Conflict. The “bad” vampires are killing humans, and the police are on the hunt for what they believe is a savage animal. This is a potential threat to Bella because if the truth were known, it could drive the Cullen family away from the area. There is also an ancient Conflict between the vampire clan and a wolf clan in the same territory.
Culture Conflict
The main cultural clash in Twilight is between the world of humans and vampires. Humans are the natural prey of vampires. It takes huge self-restraint for the vampire family to be “vegetarian” by only feeding on the blood of animals.
Nation Conflict
By showing a very different version of ancient American mythology, the wider sense of territory and alternative national mythology is explored in the story.
World Conflict
Before Bella finds out that Edward is a vampire, she knows a great deal doesn’t add up about him for a normal guy. Her secret investigations lead her to discover the mythological origins of vampires from all over the world. This gives a worldly dimension to the story.
Now let’s turn to a very different kind of film, which explores internal antagonism.
The Milk of Sorrow
Internal Conflict
Fausta, the heroine, has been emotionally scarred by her mother Susi’s personal tragedy. Raped by terrorists in the civil war when she was pregnant, Susi suffered almost unimaginable atrocity. She was forced to eat her murdered husband’s penis. Susi has brought up her daughter to fear life and, in particular, all men. As a young woman, Fausta copes with the Maternal Lesson of fear of rape by keeping a potato as a stopper in her vagina, a superstitious form of protection.
Significant Other Conflict
Her mother’s death presents Fausta with a huge problem. She wants to give Susi a proper burial in the graveyard, not just a hole in her uncle’s back garden. However, she is very poor and cannot do this. Not only does she have to cope with the loss of her mother, but also she has to embalm Susi’s body and keep it hidden in the uncle’s house. Later on, her rich female boss and the friendly male gardener become alternative “signifcant others” to Fausta. The gardener in particular is sensitive and understands her syndrome, but she is too damaged to cope with being understood by a man and gets angry with him. Her boss makes a deal with Fausta to sing, and in return she will give Fauasta pearls that she can then sell to pay for the burial. Eventually, the boss sacks Fausta, reneging on the deal. Fausta has to deal with her Internal Conflict — her fears — to take action to solve all her problems.
Family Conflict<
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Fausta’s uncle does not want the body of the mother in the house, as preparations for his own daughter’s wedding proceed. He gives her a deadline by which time her mother must be gone from the house, or he will bury her in the garden. Fausta is very much a second-class citizen in the family.
Community Conflict
The local community is a fearful place for Fausta. She is terrified of walking alone and receiving attention from young men. Superstitions are rife in the local community, which also generates a layer of Conflict for Fausta. She believes them, and her life is thus restricted by them.
Culture Conflict
The superstitious values of the old women like Susi hold their daughters back from living fully and freely.
Nation Conflict
Peru’s civil insurrection caused a huge internal split between the people. The horrific atrocities and indignities both sides inflicted on each other have left lasting scars. These permeate the story.
World Conflict
Peru is a developing country in the world. The poverty and political tensions give a global scale to the film.
Tip for Writing the Layers of Conflict
If you can get your scenes or sequences to reflect as many layers of Conflict as possible, your story will be very powerful. For an example of how well this can be done, watch 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. In one hotel room, every single layer of Conflict is somehow represented, from the World (isolated Romania in the 1980s with its extreme reproduction policies) down to the Internal Conflict, as heroine Otilia has to choose between having sex against her wishes and forcing her friend to accept the consequences of an unwanted pregnancy.