The main conflict in this story is person vs self. This is because Nathan battles with himself throughout the course of the story over several issues, such as whether he really should have married Eunice as she deserved someone who wasn’t in love with her own sister, shown in the quote, “‘We turned around then, and there was the light from the fire and our feet already set on its path. And I found I wanted to be back there with all the people around me. Eunice deserved better, and I knew it.’” He also wonders as to what would have happened if he had saved Eunice rather than Delia.
The conflict of person vs. self is significant because it an internal conflict. Had it been any other form of conflict, both the main character, Nathan, and the reader might have seen the story from another point of view and been able to place the blame on an outside source, whether a thing or being. As it is, the fact that it is an internal conflict forces the reader to acknowledge that, whatever his intentions may be, Nathan and Nathan alone had made the choice to save Delia when all others (including the reader) …show more content…
society is significant because the story takes place in a time period where societal values and expectations are emphasized very heavily throughout daily life, as shown in the quote, “...and when she spoke of anything they had whether it was a buggy or a kitchen safe or the pet dog.” The use of the word ‘buggy’ as though it was a part of their ordinary lives shows that the storyline most likely takes place around the 1900s and early 1910s, where it is well known that a class society as well as societal expectations were much more prominent than they are today. The idea that Nathan struggled against what society expected him to want (Eunice) versus what he wanted (Delia) demonstrates the amount to which his indecision had caused him, leading up until the very last moment when he (seemingly instinctively) grabbed Delia’s hands rather than
The conflict of person vs. self is significant because it an internal conflict. Had it been any other form of conflict, both the main character, Nathan, and the reader might have seen the story from another point of view and been able to place the blame on an outside source, whether a thing or being. As it is, the fact that it is an internal conflict forces the reader to acknowledge that, whatever his intentions may be, Nathan and Nathan alone had made the choice to save Delia when all others (including the reader) …show more content…
society is significant because the story takes place in a time period where societal values and expectations are emphasized very heavily throughout daily life, as shown in the quote, “...and when she spoke of anything they had whether it was a buggy or a kitchen safe or the pet dog.” The use of the word ‘buggy’ as though it was a part of their ordinary lives shows that the storyline most likely takes place around the 1900s and early 1910s, where it is well known that a class society as well as societal expectations were much more prominent than they are today. The idea that Nathan struggled against what society expected him to want (Eunice) versus what he wanted (Delia) demonstrates the amount to which his indecision had caused him, leading up until the very last moment when he (seemingly instinctively) grabbed Delia’s hands rather than