1. Person vs.
Person
Also called man vs. man and protagonist vs. antagonist, this is the most common
type of external conflict. It is clear and universally understood as a good vs. evil story in
which an unambiguous challenger opposes the main character.
The heart of this type of story involves two characters with opposing outlooks, opinions,
or goals. The story will become richer when both characters believe themselves to be
right or when there is no clear right or wrong between their differences.
In TheHunger Games, Katniss Everdeen must go up against other contestants
in order to survive – her vs. them
In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy faces off against the Wicked Witch
Murder mysteries with the investigator vs. murderer also are person vs. person
stories
2. Person vs. Nature
This type of conflict counters a character against some force of nature, such as an
animal or the weather.
A classic example is Ernest Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea
In Life of Pi, the protagonist must face a tiger trapped in the boat with him
The drought is a formidable opposition in John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, as
is the setting in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (read more about the use of
setting here)
3. Person vs. Society
When a novel sets a character against a tradition, an institution, a law, or some other
societal construct, it is a Person vs. Society story.
Atticus Finch opposed his racist community in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird
Wilbur fights for his survival against a society that eats pigs in Charlotte’s Web
In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the society treats women as
property of the state; Atwood makes the story even more interesting by
layering in environmental disasters (Person vs. Nature) to intensify the conflict
4. Person vs. Technology
When science moves beyond human control, conflicts of Person vs. Technology
develop. Stories in this conflict type include:
2001: A Space Odyssey
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
I, Robot
Apollo 13
5. Person vs. Supernatural
Vampires, werewolves, aliens, and ghosts – any typically unbelievable, supernatural, or
inexplicable phenomena – provide Person vs. Supernatural conflicts. Examples of such
stories include:
The Shining, by Stephen King
The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson
The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells
The Exorcist
Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach series
Almost anything by Edgar Allan Poe
6. Person vs. Self
A character battling inner demons, one who has an inner moral conflict (think Hamlet),
or is simply striving to become a better person is in a Person vs. Self conflict.
Daniel Scott Keyes's short story Flowers for Algernon has a main character
struggling with losing his intelligence to a congenital mental disability, with the
focus on the character’s feelings about his circumstances: the conflict between
his intellect and emotion are central
