Monday, November 8, 2010

Man vs Self Conflict

Man vs. Self - The conflict between Man and his/herself occurs when a figure develops an internal struggle between his/her thoughts and ideas. Fight Club is an excellent example of Man vs self conflcit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD8kWrd1aBE - Link to the trailer for Fight Club

The narrator (Edward Norton) is an automobile company employee who travels to accident sites to perform product recall cost appraisals. His doctor refuses to write a prescription for his insomnia and instead suggests that he visit a support group for testicular cancer victims in order to appreciate real suffering. By attending the group, the narrator feels distraught at the condition of these ill fated people and breaks down. He is then able to sleep soundly and subsequently fakes more illnesses so he can attend other support groups in order to get out his pent up emotions through crying. The narrator's routine is disrupted when he begins to notice another impostor, Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter), at the same meetings and his insomnia returns.
During a flight for a business trip, the narrator meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), who is a soap salesman. The narrator arrives home to find his apartment has been destroyed by an explosion. He calls Tyler and meets him at a bar. Tyler agrees to let the narrator stay at his home on the condition that the narrator hits him. The narrator complies and the two end up enjoying a fist fight outside the bar. The narrator moves into Tyler's dilapidated house and the two return to the bar, where they have another fight in the parking lot. After attracting a crowd, they establish a 'fight club' in the bar's basement.
When Marla overdoses on Xanax, she is rescued by Tyler and the two embark upon a sexual relationship. Tyler tells the narrator never to talk about him with Marla. Under Tyler's leadership, the fight club becomes "Project Mayhem," which commits increasingly destructive acts of anti-capitalist vandalism in the city. The fight clubs become a network for Project Mayhem, and the narrator is left out of Tyler's activities with the project. After an argument, Tyler disappears from the narrator's life and when a member of Project Mayhem dies on a mission, the narrator attempts to shut down the project. Tracing Tyler's steps, he travels around the country to find that fight clubs have been started in every major city, where one of the participants identifies him as Tyler Durden. A phone call to Marla confirms his identity and he realizes that Tyler is an alter ego of his own split personality. Tyler appears before him and explains that he controls the narrator's body whenever he is asleep.
The narrator faints and awakes to find Tyler has made several phone calls during his blackout and traces his plans to the downtown headquarters of several major credit card companies, which Tyler intends to destroy in order to cripple the financial networks. Failing to find help with the police, many of whom are members of Project Mayhem, the narrator attempts to disarm the explosives in the basement of one of the buildings. He is confronted by Tyler, knocked unconscious, and taken to the upper floor of another building to witness the impending destruction. The narrator, held by Tyler at gunpoint, realizes that in sharing the same body with Tyler, he is the one who is actually holding the gun. He fires it into his mouth, shooting through the cheek without killing himself. The illusion of Tyler collapses with an exit wound to the back of his head. Shortly after, members of Project Mayhem bring a kidnapped Marla to the narrator and leave them alone. The bombs detonate and, holding hands, the two witness the destruction of the entire financial city block through the windows.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137523/synopsis -Website where I got the the synopsis for Fight Club.

Man vs Nature Conflict

Man vs. Nature occurs between a man/woman who has problems with outside forces such as weather, land, animal, etc. There are many television shows about the conflict between man and nature. Two shows that I watch on Discovery Channel which are all about man versus nature are
 1) Man vs. Wild - which brings seasoned adventurer Bear Grylls face to face with the grueling task of navigating remote locations, dealing with the obstacles that nature throws his way and sharing invaluable survival strategies along the way. http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/man-vs-wild/ - This is where the shows info came from.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa6N7agxizw – Trailer for Man vs. Wild
2) Storm Chasers - Joel, Reed and Chris known as the chase team. About the show - Each spring, changing weather patterns across 700,000 square miles of the Great Plains known as "Tornado Alley" create the conditions for the world's most violent outbreaks. Our team of the world's top storm chasers heads out to track down twisters, but just seeing tornadoes has never been enough. Their goal is to go INSIDE... and SURVIVE! http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/storm-chasers/ - This is where the show info came from.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3ayjgix4r0 – Trailer for Storm Chasers