External Conflict In 'Two Friends, And Rosendo'

It is an immutable fact of life that every person will find him or herself in a situation that makes him or her uncomfortable at some point in his or her life. The true importance of such events is not in the situations themselves, but in how the person reacts to being in the situation. Such themes are present in literature from all around the globe, as evinced by Ken Liu’s “The
Paper Menagerie,” Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Gogol,” Guy de Maupassant’s “Two Friends,” and Jorge Luis Borges’ “Rosendo’s Tale.” External societal pressures cause internal conflict in characters by thrusting them into unfavorable situations, and these situations force characters to decide whether their values are worth keeping. A character who never has to stand up for his or
Such a minor sentence from Mark has a major impact on Jack. Mark’s words cause Jack to act callously toward his mother, displaying how desperately he wants to fit in with other children his age. After his mother dies of cancer, Jack finds a letter that professes all of the turmoil his mother goes through when Jack ignores her. The letter ends with his mother writing that “the pain makes it hard to write” (Liu), exhibiting her unconditional affection towards Jack. Even though Jack is curt with his mother through his life, she still loves Jack until she passes. Jack realizes that instead of worrying about how others think, he should have been true to himself and loved his mother. Jack chooses to assimilate into the culture of his friends rather than embrace his Chinese heritage because of the pressure his peers put on him, revealing that Jack cares more for his friends than his
Gogol is a man who believes all of his problems originate from his exotic name. Gogol’s unique name comes from Nikolai Gogol, a Russian author that Gogol’s father, Ashoka, reads before he miraculously survives a train crash. Since Gogol’s parents only tell him the real reason behind his name when he is an adult, Gogol despises the name for making him stand out. He lashes out against his parents, claiming that “no one takes [him] seriously” (Lahiri) because his name is so strange. In actuality, nobody makes fun of Gogol for his unique name, but his sense of reality is warped because of his immense desire to change his name. The perceived pressures that weigh upon Gogol lead him to have a crisis about why his parents would be so cruel as to name him Gogol. Once Ashoka tells Gogol the true meaning behind his name, Gogol views the name in a new light. The name that seemed so contrived for all of Gogol’s life suddenly seemed to “mean something completely new” (Lahiri). Instead of seeing the name as a vain reference to his father’s favorite author, Gogol now views the name as a reference to the miracles that allow Ashoka and Gogol to be alive today. Gogol’s revelation of the his name’s meaning overhauls his previous beliefs, solving his identity crisis. Gogol’s inner belief of wanting to be similar to his peers leads to him acting in a desperate manner to