Man against Technology

Technology has had an increasing impact on our daily lives and hence, its appearance in literature has also grown. From observing how technology has revolutionized how we did things in the past one hundred years ago, it is exciting as well as concerning as we imagine what impact it will have one hundred years from now. While the effect has many times been beneficial, technology has brought along many pitfalls in the past decades.

In the conflict between man against technology, man fights to defeat technological devices such as robots while, in many instances, also fighting those in governance. This particular type of conflict is most common in science fiction books.

From our last illustration obtained from the book, The Deftly Paradox by M. D. White, we can better understand this type of conflict. In the book, the main character fights for change in the form of a computerized system replacing the governing body comprised of humans who have failed the galaxy. The world is devastated from the multiple wars that have been fought and billions are dead with many living in abject poverty. The main character succeeds in his fight and a governing machine is established. Hundreds of years pass and the galaxy slowly returns to normality until the machine turns against its very creators.

Man against Nature

In this type of conflict, the character involved fights for survival against a force of nature such as a hurricane or a forest fire. A classic example is when a character is stranded on a snowy mountain after a plane crash, fighting for survival against the bitter cold.

Man against Fate

In this case, the person is unable or struggles to free themselves from what appears to be their fate.

In Lettie’s Plight by Michael Bussa, Lettie struggles to free from a life of poverty by marrying a cruel, wealthy man. She withstands his abuse as she hatches her plan to become the wealthy woman she has always dreamed of becoming. But even her well thought out plans seem to work against her and once again she finds herself caught up in the never-ending cycle of poverty.

Man against the Supernatural

In novels involving supernatural beings such as angels or demons, this type of conflict is common.

In Michael E. Fulkerson’s novel, Demon Stalker, a US Special Forces soldier agrees to do a favor for a friend. He ends up dead and finds himself in purgatory. Jake learns that for him to move forward and save himself, he has to take down demon kings, an almost impossible task in which Jake fears he will never win

In most books, more than one conflict exists. The main character could have a difficult relationship with his parents while facing conflict within themselves in getting where they want to be in life. Still, most novels have a main conflict which is fundamental to the book, despite there being other conflicts that exist within the work. For instance, in a novel, the main character could be in a disagreement with a colleague but the main plot revolves around his fight for survival against robots.