Preview

Useless Beauty By Stephen King

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
891 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Useless Beauty By Stephen King
English 2333

Conflict is Growth
When one struggles, they are paying the price to receive beneficial growth in their lives. Conflict will always be around in daily life to challenge our beliefs and behaviors, so it is important to bring emotions and deep feelings out so that issues may have a chance of being resolved. The best thing anybody can do is to deal with it in a positive manner creating growth and maturity, but occasionally one will learn nothing and reject any improvement. Two stories this semester that dealt with this issue directly were Useless Beauty by Guy De Maupassant and Premium Harmony by Stephen King. These tales brought conflict to a great point creating tension but it was the way they were handled that makes both stories standout.
In Useless Beauty, the protagonist Madame de Mascaret had a strength
…show more content…
"This is what I have to say to you. I am afraid of nothing, whatever you may do to me. You may kill me if you like” (Maupassant 6). “I am a woman of the civilized world, monsieur--we all are--and we are no longer, and we refuse to be, mere females to restock the earth,”(Maupassant 16). Conflict was an ongoing issue within her marriage; beginning with her husband who was always jealous of her flawless beauty and constrained her from society by impregnating her repeatedly over a period of eleven years. Forced into marriage for money and not truly in a love relationship with Comte de Mascaret, Madame struck back with revenge “One of your children is not yours, and one only; that I swear to you before God, who hears me here. That was the only revenge that was possible for me in return for all your abominable masculine

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Beauty by Jane Martin

    • 1154 Words
    • 5 Pages

    We live in a country where television and advertisement is designed to entice people into always wanting more than what they already have. This enticement is achieved by feeding into the human desire for happiness. Advertisers create persuasive campaigns that inundate the public with images of societies narrow interpretation of success and beauty. These images are then presented as a precondition to the happiness that human beings are searching for. When a person’s reality does not match this narrow image, the message sent through television and advertisements is that in order to be content people need to find a way to acquire it. As a result we live in a society where people are continuously longing for a happiness that can only be achieved through things that are fleeting and external, which creates feelings of discontentment…

    • 1154 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    An interesting story will always have conflict. Conflicts create the main action of a plot. Without any conflicts, stories would be bland. The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell has several conflicts. All of which contains, man versus nature, man versus self, and man versus man.…

    • 331 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Lens Model of Conflict

    • 376 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In a conflict, each person will have their own view of the situation at hand and react differently. As the old saying says, there are two sides to every story. For example, let’s say you have a couple that gets into an argument or should I say, a conflict, about their child spilling juice on the living room carpet. The mother may view it as being a simple mistake and can easily be cleaned, whereas the father may make a big deal out of it. Obviously, both perspectives are different based on their reactions.…

    • 376 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every story needs a conflict, and every conflict needs to be dealt with. It tells a lot about a character how they deal with every uprising they may run into. Within three different stories I have read in class there have been many examples of conflict. A Person vs self conflict is when a character is in a conflict with themselves. Person vs person is when a character is in conflict with one or more other characters. Person vs nature occurs when nature brings a character conflict.…

    • 767 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Brownies Short Story

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages

    This type of conflict is shown in the story Brownies, where the protagonist Laurel is conflicted on whether or not to stay reserved to herself or to speak up. When the troop corners the white girls, Laurel is not sure if she should share her ideas with her troop or to stand up for the white girls. “If I spoke even a word, I could count on someone calling me Snot.” Person vs. Self conflict is also conveyed in the story Our Lady of Peace. A new teacher named Lynnea is confused by the students that she teaches. They do not listen to her and are constantly misbehaving. Lynnea doesn't know if it is how she teaches that is causing these problems, so she tries different methods to try and calm her class. A transfer student joins the class and is motivated to learn.…

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Conflict is an inevitable part of human existence. Whenever two or more people interact with each other, there exists a potential for conflict. Conflict arises from a clash of ideas, power- hungry people and individual differences. Struggle for power occurs everywhere, ranging from a school yard to a war ground. The outcomes of struggle however depend on the coping skills, personal qualities and the values and beliefs of the individual. In a situation of extreme conflict, the individual is put to a test where he is required to be resilient and calm so that he can smoothly survive such a dangerous circumstance. The true test of one’s character is not based on what conflict they face, but how the individual deals with the conflict.…

    • 915 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Conflict is an inevitable part of life. It can arise from a failure to achieve a motive or when facing an unfamiliar environment. Conflict is an opportunity to improve. Different individuals will learn to cope with conflict differently; it may seem natural for some to avoid or stand by conflict and let it tear relationships apart, but there are common mechanisms which people can adopt to resolve their problems. Finding similarities and ignoring the differences is one way of coping with unlike individuals, but the fundamental approach to resolving conflict is to accept. The acceptance of individual and cultural differences gives us insight and understanding of the basis of conflict, which also allows for reassessment of moral values. This is how unity can be achieved in the most difficult of all circumstances.…

    • 847 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Encountering Conflift

    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Conflict is omnipresent for every individual regardless of time and place. It is a fundamental part of human existence, leading back to the earliest forms of conflict where our human ancestors competed with other species for survival tools such as food and shelter. Nowadays, conflict has developed into multitudinous forms – from merely debating what to have for lunch to global issues such as climate change. Without conflict, our experiences in life would undoubtedly be less dynamic and vibrant. Conflict is an essential factor to shaping our identity. Our relationship with conflict defines who we are because we learn to formulate our own opinions and values. Conflict is a natural element in the world and although we may not notice each and every single time it presents itself, conflict is a part of our everyday lives.…

    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the Kite Runner, conflict is evident throughout; physical conflict of the war, Baba’s internal fight against cancer, Hassan’s constant battle with the society he lived in, Sohrab’s struggle to accept and trust Amir, but none more prominent than Amir’s conflict with his emotions and his own image of himself. The entirety of Hosseini’s novel is based around the self-conscious narrative of a guilty man who struggles to come to terms with the consequences of the, decisively wrong, decisions he made as a child, which seems to have caused a domino effect on his whole life, never truly able to make the right choice until the end of the novel when he finally chose to stand up and stand up for what is right instead of running and hiding- saving the last ounce of his brothers happiness, his son, Sohrab.…

    • 1205 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lord of the Flies

    • 992 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Another type of conflict that is present and dominant in this novel is man vs. man. In everyday life, people’s different personalities cause disagreements and arguments. As with any group of…

    • 992 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The true test of someone’s character is not determined by how we deal with conflict in our life, but how we deal with all the aspects of our lives, for example; how we are when we are happy, grieving or angry. Our maturity levels also play a huge part in defining who we are. There is no doubt that conflict alters our emotions, thus it effects our actions, but this does not determine who we are. It only shows how we act in times of stress. Conflict can be encountered in many aspects of people’s lives including social, work and home lives. An emotional state of our being is not indicative of our true self; it is simply symptomatic of an event.…

    • 1031 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    When people encounter conflict, they learn and grow from the experience. People gain or acquire knowledge and develop themselves when faced with a disagreement or argument, either internally or externally. From conflict they can learn about themselves as well as others, develop skills needed in the future and accept differences. Conflict can occur anywhere, anytime, so it is important for people to learn and grow when they encounter it.…

    • 617 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Encountering Conflict

    • 1355 Words
    • 6 Pages

    I am writing in response to the prompt ‘conflict is an inherit part of life; it isn’t necessarily negative. Based on my knowledge of the text, The Rugmaker of Mazar e Sharif I will write an expository piece in the form of an analytical essay to highlight to the readers that conflict isn’t necessarily negative. I have chosen to do this because I believe that conflict is a part of life as it can bring good and bad for individuals. The target audience for my discussion is young people, 16-18 years old, who are studying the text and keen to engage with ideas of conflict.…

    • 1355 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Encountering Conflict

    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Without conflict we won’t truly know the capacity of someone’s inner strength and understanding. Conflict is a true test which raises issues that otherwise wouldn’t be raised, issues which need to be dealt with in order for us to grow as a person. As well as testing a person’s inner strength and understanding it can also expose their weaknesses and flaws.…

    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Materials • Copies of the attached Interior or Exterior Conflicts worksheet • Sticky notes • Short story Lesson 1. 2. Brainstorm with students the types of conflicts or problems they face on a daily basis, and write their responses on the board. Explain to students that there are two types of conflicts that people face every day: • Internal conflict, which takes place in a person’s mind—for example, a struggle to make a decision or overcome a feeling. Internal conflicts are character vs. self. • External conflict, which generally takes place between a person and someone or something else, such as nature, another person or persons, or an event or situation. External conflicts may be character vs. character, character vs. nature, or character vs. society. Tell students that characters in a story face the same types of conflicts, and it is important to identify them in order to understand the story completely. 3. 4. 5. Distribute copies of the “Interior or Exterior Conflicts” worksheet. Have students classify the conflicts as internal or external conflicts, writing the answers in the left column. Go over the classifications with the class, and allow students to correct their answers as needed. Give students copies of another worksheet showing a different set of interior and exterior conflicts, and have students classify them independently and hand in the completed worksheet for assessment. Have students read a short story from their literature book and as they read, put sticky notes on the text wherever conflict is present. When they have finished, ask students to identify the types of conflict they found in the story. Lead a class discussion of the ways the plot might have been different had internal conflicts been external or vice versa.…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays