Formal Essay
English 11

Everyone experiences many different conflicts and problems in life that they have to learn to overcome, but how different are these problems from one another’s? And are they as difficult to deal with as we think?

In the stories “Powder” and “Finals” the sons experience many different conflicts on a personal and relationship level. In story “Powder” the conflicts he is dealing with are more on a personal level because he is insecure and not confident about himself. The story “Finals” clearly states that the son’s conflicts are on more of the relationship level, because he has to deal with his dad being an alcoholic. The conflicts that both the sons are dealing with are different in many ways because they have very different relationships with their dad’s and different circumstances happening in their life.

In the story “Powder” the son experiences many personal and internal conflicts with himself. He is very insecure with himself, and has to ask his dad for reassurance that he is good at things in life, and has strong points; this is clearly stated on page 36 when he says, “Ok then, what are my strong points?” The son has many difficulties keeping up to his dad with confidence, not just on the skiing trip, but in his general life, because he is nervous and not very confident with himself; this is explain on page 33 when he says “he was indifferent to my fretting, I stuck to him like white rice.” Nearing the end of the story the son was very nervous and anxious about driving home because there was a awful windstorm happening and he wasn’t sure if they would make it home safely; this is stated when he says “to keep my hands from shaking I champed them between my knees.” Pg(35) The dad, with confidence, drove home very calmly, and the son got irritated because he couldn’t be as confident and calm like his dad was; this is shown when he says “I was supposed to say right doctor, but I didn’t say anything”

The story “Finals” has many different conflicts happening with the son