Conflict And Tension In The Man Upstairs By Ray Bradbury

Conflict and tension are necessary for all well written stories, interesting movies, and even great music. One genre of literature that relies heavily on conflict and tension are horror stories, which are narratives that provoke fear in the audience. Conflict is when there are two or more forces opposing each other. Tension, or the rising action, can be defined as the building of the established conflict until it reaches the climax then resolution. The climax is when the opposing forces resolve their conflict. The resolution of a story is when order is restored and the outcome of the conflict and climax is made apparent.
An example of a horror story that uses conflict and tension to generate fear is “The Man Upstairs” by Ray Bradbury. In Bradbury’s story, a man named Mr. Koberman moves into Douglas’s grandparents’ house. Koberman is a vampire that is terrorizing the town, and Douglas is a very nosey boy determined to find out more about who and what Koberman is. In the story, Bradbury uses conflict and tension to explore fears that still resonate with our culture. …show more content…
Koberman and Douglas. Their conflict arises from the fact that Koberman is a vampire who wishes to keep a low profile while he terrorizes the town. On the other hand, Douglas is a nosey brat who isn’t afraid to investigate call out things that he thinks are strange. Because Douglas immediately suspects something is off about Koberman, their conflict begins.
Tension mounts almost immediately when Koberman moves into the house. Douglas finds the man to be very strange when giving Douglas money after being let in the