7 conflict types in narratives - Person vs Society

For this exercise, we were split in two groups and were given the task to research and talk about the narrative based on either the 7 conflicts or 7 plots.
My group was given the 7 conflicts, and between us, we each had to chose 1 conflict to research in detail. My conflict is Person vs Society.

This conflict refers to a situation " When the protagonist’s conflict extends to confronting institutions, traditions, or laws of his or her culture, he or she struggles to overcome them, either triumphing over a corrupt society (I draw a blank here), rejecting it (Fahrenheit 451), or succumbing to it (1984)."
(http://www.dailywritingtips.com/7-types-of-narrative-conflict/)

http://www.storyboardthat.com/articles/education/types-of-literary-conflict

http://www.storyboardthat.com/articles/education/types-of-literary-conflict

A pretty good example of this kind of conflict would be in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. We have actually 2 different characters fighting against society in this cartoon. The first one is Esmeralda, the gypsy girl,  fighting to change the society's take on gypsies, and, on a different level, she is also trying to change Quasimodo's attitude and preconceptions. He was isolated since birth, he was made to live alone in a tower, so his perception on life is not actually his own, his views are his "Master's" (Frolo). So, the second conflict, sees Esmeralda trying to change the society's views on Quasimodo, and through this, change their attitude towards the unusual, the different. We can actually say the Esmeralda is fighting against the society, in order to make them accept "the others" as part of the society as a whole. I know this is only a cartoon, but the layers of narrative are many and there are also many lessons to be learnt. Esmeralda represents the free spirit, unconventional mind teamed up with a strong character, giving her the power to fight and win the battle against the restrictive society.
On a different level, however, she is trying to convince Quasimodo, the product of this society, that he is just a normal human being, and that it IS OK for him to interact, to go out and be part of the society that has marginalised him for the simple fact that he was born different.

Esmeralda fighting the representative of the Society

Esmeralda  protecting Quasimodo - the "odd one out", the one the society is rejecting, marginalising

 Guy Fawkes - fighting against society. He is trying to burn down The House of Lords in an attempt to make his opinions heard. The reasons for this attempt is deeply religious. 
After Catholicism was pushed slightly aside,... 

..."The situation deteriorated further at the Hampton Court Conference of January 1604. Trying to accommodate as many views as possible, James I expressed hostility against the Catholics in order to satisfy the Puritans, whose demands he could not wholly satisfy. In February he publicly announced his 'utter detestation' of Catholicism; within days all priests and Jesuits had been expelled and recusancy fines reintroduced.

Although bitterly disappointed, most English Catholics prepared to swallow the imposition of the fines, and live their double lives as best they could. But this passive approach did not suit all.

Robert Catesby was a devout Catholic and familiar with the price of faith. His father had been imprisoned for harbouring a priest, and he himself had had to leave university without a degree, to avoid taking the Protestant Oath of Supremacy. Yet he possessed immense personal magnetism, crucial in recruiting and leading his small band of conspirators."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/civil_war_revolution/gunpowder_robinson_01.shtml

Guido Fawkes ( Guy Fawkes)

V for Vendetta

Another good example: Robin Hood stealing from the rich to give to the poor.  Is he right in doing that? He IS STEALING, does the fact that he is giving to the poor, make the act right?
This conflict, man vs society, is a very interesting subject to talk about, as is really depends which point of view you are telling the story from. Morality has an immense role in this conflict, as it depends a lot how much you are willing to forgive and bypass certain actions in order to accept the mindset of the hero.

While researching into man vs society conflict, I came across this great blog on the subject: http://www.paperwingspodcast.com/2012/05/man-vs-society/ 
The examples given in this article, are from movies, but I think they are just brilliant.

The devil wears Prada

The Help

Indiana Jones

Jerry McGuire

The American War of Independence (1775-1783)

Exercise: Structure the narrative in a film of choice, based on Syd Field's 3 act structure

Exercise: Structure the narrative in a film of choice, based on Syd Field's 3 act structure

For this exercise, we have been, again, split in groups of 3, and we have chosen to talk about Finding Nemo.

Act 1 

 The set up

 In Finding Nemo, the set up can be broken down in 3 acts as well, as Normality is being set as we are being introduced to Marlin and Coral, 2 clown fish, expecting a whole lot of babies. They are talking about normal things, like what to name their babies, as a barracuda comes and eats Coral as well as all but one eggs. At the same time, Marlin is being hurt and knocked unconscious, so this can easily be classed as a mini climax, or a mid point. But then, he realises that one egg is left, so life has purpose again, and he is determined to offer this one egg the best life he can. 

Another "normality" is being established as we are being introduced to the life Nemo and Marlin are living, as they get ready for Nemo's forst day of school

Characters

In a very short period of time we meet quite a few characters: apart from Nemo and Marlin, we also meet Mr Ray (Nemo's teacher), a few of Nemo's new school mates and also, we are beibng introduced to Dory who will play a key role in this whol adventure

Act 2

Inciting incident

The confrontation between Nemo and Marlin as the young fish ventures into the sea. Nemo feels like he needs to prove himself, while Marlin is trying with all his will to stop him from getting hurt.

Plot point 1

Marlin sets off to find his son, after he was picked up by a diver

Obstacles
Dory and Marlin encounter the sharks and then the angler fish as they are escaping the sharks.

Midpoint

Marlin realises that Dory can't actually help him due to her very short term memory.

At the same time, on the other side of the ocean, Nemo is trying to escape through the filter in the fish tank, in the Dentist's office.

( We encounter here, two stories happening side by side hence the situation where we have 2 midpoints)

Plot point 2

The turtles find Marlin and Dory and are pointing them in the right direction.

                                                             Marlin meets Crush

Act 3

Clinax 1

Marlin and Dory get to the dentist's surgery and see Nemo belly up in a bag - they think he is dead and give up the rescue

Climax 2

Nemo lying for dead at the bottom of the ocean after trying to save the fish caught in the net. 

Denoument

Nemo and Marlin go back to school. Normal life is being restored, however, there is a twist, normality is slightly different than at the beginning of the film. As Nemo gets ready to go with Mr Ray, Dory shows up with their shark friends. "Fish are friends, not food" is being proven to be true for now.

The Hero's journey - Joseph Campbell

The Hero's Journey

The most basic mental picture anyone can form when thinking of a hero's journey is shown in this image

independent filmmakers best resources

So, any narrative starts with a sense of normality, everyone, and especially the hero, leads a normal life, run by routine. From that, we start to build a story following some basic steps. These steps have been used in movies, theatre, opera, games, books, anything that involves narrative.

Here are these basic steps.

1. Departure - the hero's journey begins here, he will depart from the ordinary world
2. The call to adventure - 
3. Initial refusal of the call
4. Acceptance of the call
5. Supernatural Aid and/or talisman
6. Crossing the first threshold and entering into the unknown
7. Threshold guardians
8. Allies/helpers
9. Belly of the whale

There is quite a lot to explain about each one of these steps, in order to make it clear as to what their significance is, but I have found a brilliant, in depth description of each one of the stages a hero will have to follow during a story. It is known as Campbell's monomyth.

http://davidrjolly.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/monomyth.jpg

Vladimir Propp's character led narrative

• Propp's theory is that each character has a particular role in a narrative.

• Opera is one form of art that follows Vladimir Propp's theory on Character led narrative very well.

• Star Wars has been called a "Space Opera" for the simple fact that it follows Propp's theory very well

A really important thing to mention, before getting into details about Character led narrative and theoretical things, is that: in order to break the rules, we first need to know what the rules are.

So, we need to first, set the scene and decide who the characters are:

1. The Hero - he is the one that drives the story, it keeps is going
2. The Villain - is trying to prevent the narrative from moving forward
3. The Donor - they are aiding the Hero (Fairy Godmothers, or Obi Wan Kenobi and Han Solo in Star Wars)
4. The Helper - they help the hero ( animals in Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, Droids and Leia in Star Wars). It is interesting to mention that some characters can be both Helpers and Donors at the same time.
5. The Princess - the one that needs to be rescued
6. The Dispatcher - the one that sets the hero on his quest, the one that takes the decision that the hero needs to do something about the situation ( the fathers of the prince and princess in Sleeping Beauty or Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars)
7. The false Hero - they look like they are capable of saving the day, but they are either incapable, or they are on the wrong side

Create a short narrative of choice

Character based narrative

• In the slums of the City, the Mob has got complete power over the day to day life of the people. Everyone needs to pay "protection tax" in order to be able to have a normal life

scene setting

• Zen, our hero, is a poor gypsy boy trying to create a better life for himself and everyone else around him. He lives in the slums of the City with his tribal family, in extreme poverty. He starts off as a pickpocket in order to help his family, in a Robin Hood style - He steals from the mobs and gives to his people in order to be able to make ends meet.

Zen - the hero

• One day he pickpockets the wrong person, he is the best in this trade at stealing and killing ( similar to "The Wolf" from Pulp Fiction)
• If Zen wants to save his family, he needs to create an alliance with The Wolf

The Wolf

• However his  family gets killed and he starts plotting his revenge

.... 4 years go by

• He is now trying to take over the mob.
• In this process, he is slowly drawn into the criminal life and gets corrupted. He has nothing else to live for, and it is very easy for The Wolf to see his vulnerability and turn him into a heartless criminal. The wolf gives him a sword

• While before he was restricting his activity to just scare tactics, he now starts hurting people and is on a fast track to killing as well
• The Wolf has his own plan to overturn The Boss and become the boss himself with Zen's help
• Zen agrees to help The Wolf for the selfish reason that he wants to become The Boss himself
• The Boss is a woman and Zen, knows that if he finds her weak points, he will be able to influence her
• The Boss is asking Zen to spy on the Wolf as she suspects something 
• The Wolf gets closer to Zen and considers him a friend and starts confessing some his plans
• Zen uses this friendship against him and is playing the Wolf and the Boss against each other
• Zen gets the Wolf and The Boss to have a confrontation in which they start fighting and while they are both half dead, they realise that this is all Zen's doing, and at this exact point, Zen finishes them both off and he becomes The Boss
• Zen is now The Boss, and normality is restored - people of the slums still have to pay their dues to the mob, but now the mob is represented by one of their own

As a player you will be able to play as The Wolf or Zen.

Depending on the character, you will follow different paths of action and have different quests

You can switch between characters mid play.

Mini group project - pick a few games and explain why the narrative works

For this mini project we were split in groups and asked to come up with a few videogames that we think have got really good narrative and explain why we think that.

In our group, beside me, there were Tom, Owen and James. Between us, we came up with The Last of us, SpecOps: The Line, Grand Theft Auto the series and I supported Dear Esther.

The last of us:

To support our choice, I will just show a few comments from people that have played the game.

"One of the most moving and evocative games in memory. They break through a lot of clichés that plague gaming, and do so with a raw, gritty, unforgiving storyline. " ( Heychrisfox on metacritic ) 

"A masterpiece, that breaks the self imposed barriers of gaming narrative and ensnares the player with intelligent gameplay and brilliant A.I." (SpazioGames on metacritic )

  

So, in very few words, The Last of Us has a really well built story, linear, but very interesting and engaging. The voice acting makes a big difference to the game play as well. The player feels somehow responsible for the 14 year old girl that they need to rescue (Ellie) and as you get more and more immersed in the whole story, it is very easy to identify yourself with the main character, Joel, which comes to prove that the Narrative works really well in this game.



Dear Esther:

Dear Esther is a beautiful first person game, that immerses the player in a sad story told by a very talented voice over actor (Nigel Carrington), through letters read out. It is not everyone's choice of game, as there are no missions to be solved, no score cards,or enemies to fight, but from my point of view, the way the narrative, linear as it is, works in this is game, is sublime. "An argument has been raging among the judging panel of the Independent Games Festival. The flashpoint: whether the moody mystery narrative of Dear Esther constitutes a game at all." (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-14-dear-esther-review

However, in the same article, it is mentioned that : "Dear Esther is a first-person experience and uses many of the narrative tricks familiar to Valve's games, silently building a story through the careful drawing of the world around you."
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-14-dear-esther-review

I find that Dear Esther is somewhere in between a text game and an audio book, not extremely interactive as gameplay goes, but very relaxing, and very engaging, a game that will draw your attention once you start listening to the story and will stay with you for a while after you have finished exploring the island.

SpecOps: The Line

One of the characteristics of a good, engaging narrative, that I have mentioned previously, was for the morality system to be central to the game play and be implemented in such a way, that the player feels that his/her action have got real implications, and the decisions taken will further affect the story line. One such game is SpecOps: The Line, " a provocative third-person modern military shooter that challenges players' morality by putting them in the middle of unspeakable situations where unimaginable choices affecting human life must be made." (metacritic)
It is quite a shocking game for the soft hearted player, as it exposes the reality and truth that only real life soldier would experience, and by this I mean, reaching "The Line" - "that razor's edge known only to men who deal in war. It is the line they cross when death and duty become one and the same. It is the end -- of self and sanity -- when their duty is done and only they remain". (metacritic )


Grand Theft Auto  - all series

This is a game where the narrative is showcased at its best, as it has all characteristics that I have initially mentioned for it to work. 

It is surprising and it goes beyond stereotypes in the most engaging way. It is a parody of modern life, and if you miss this point from the whole aspect of the game, you might have a completely different opinion. The narrative works brilliantly with the mechanic of the game. Being an open world, even though you have missions to accomplish, you have quite a lot of freedom to explore the environment. Morality system is really well built, but, with the game being a parody, it does not coincide with the real life morality system, that is a completely different concept.  The architecture and landscape are amazing, you get to explore entire cities, go into the darkest corners, and there will always be something for you to do and see. The extras are absolutely amazing! The radio stations supporting the entire game play are just fantastic and so emerging that quite a few times I was driving for the sake of driving and listening to some good music or a crazy radio show ( fernando martinez - emotion 98.3)  To end my opinion on Grand Theft Auto, I will quote an article from the Guardian related to this game: "Last of Us says more about humanity in five minutes than GTA V does in its 70-plus missions. Five stars for such a troubled proposition? That'll confuse and anger a few people, I know it. But no one constructs worlds like Rockstar and this one is worth many, many hours of exploration. It is fun, so much guilty, ridiculous fun. It is beautiful to look at, it is jammed with ideas" (http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/16/gta-5-review-grand-theft-auto-v). 
This is a game different that any others, in a class of its own, hence the controversy around it.