Encountering Conflict

Encountering Conflict A punchy preparation for pondering the potentials and possibilities of producing and perusing pugnaciousness in prose

Context: less about text ... OK; so we know that the path to success in the Context is through the core texts ... ... And in our case, that means The Crucible and The Secret River. But this is NOT a text study, we’re less interested in the themes, relationships, constructions and cultural influences than in what the writers show us about conflict, and how they do this.

The Crucible Arthur Miller was one of America’s biggest-name playwrights from the 1940’s through to the mid-90’s. He wrote two towering successes, critically and artistically: Death of a Salesman and The Crucible. The Crucible was Miller’s response to events that wracked America during the 1950’s, when fear of Communism was rampant. A Congressional Committee (into “Un-American Activities”), headed by Senator McCarthy, began to investigate whatever links people might have had to Communism. Suddenly, anyone who had had any connection to the evil of Communism was not suspect, but guilty. Miller saw the parallels in this paranoia and that which had swept the small Puritan community of Salem Village, nearly 300 years earlier.

Salem Village ... Is a crucible Metaphor: The fire burns hot, scorching the base, impure substances to nothing, leaving only the purest metal ... Characters as embodiments of conflict: Fear ... of evil; of the unknown; of anyone different; of one’s own weaknesses; of consequences = Parris, Proctor, Hathorne, the girls, Elizabeth Proctor Greed ... for power; for land; for security = Putnam, Hathorne Ambition ... for political office; for marriage; for sex = Hathorne, Parris, Proctor, Abigail Jealousy ... of others’ good fortune; of possessions; of position = Anne Putnam, Thomas Putnam; Parris Ignorance ... Lack of knowledge; lack of understanding = the whole village; Hale

A play is a crucible Recipe: Collect together a cast of characters, stir – at times forcefully; mould and meld with each other and occasional infusions as required; place in a large hall and add an audience. Add tension, nerves, anticipation and suspense. Cross fingers and await outcome. Strategies: Dialogue Vox vocis of scriptor : Miller’s explanations of the history and the characters gives both direction to the way we see the Analogy (history) Characterisations and relationships

The Secret River The Secret River is Kate Grenville’s sort-of-bio-might-have-been. She began to write a family history, but the story of Solomon Wiseman ended up being told in a ‘factional’ way, about Will Thornhill. Try http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A020561b.htm Thornhill is transported to the colony of New South Wales after his sentence of death was commuted. His wife Sal, and their first child Willie, accompanied him. He had been a “lighterman” in London, and pretty much made a living in the same way in New South Wales. Thornhill grabbed some land along the Hawkesbury River, along with others who found Sydney’s confines too constricting. Thornhill had been born into conflict, with England’s grinding poverty, but in a way, this was a good apprenticeship, as one view of his success in Australia might say that he learned well how to become an oppressor, rather than be oppressed.

A secret conflict Secrecy:There are many ways in which naked conflict or aggression is merely the tip of the spear ... The rest is the society which enshrines a philosophy of conflict; the culture that frames it; and the institutions that carry it out. The Secret River, in a sense, reveals how contagious and pervasive are these things. Transportation from one social context to another simply made the expression of the conflict more virulent, more ... violent. • What impact does repression, or suppression have on the nature of a conflict? • What do the person-to-person conflicts show, in relation to the greater social clashes? Thornhill/Sal; Blackwood/Smasher; Thornhll/Whisker Harry; Thornhill/Dick;

The Secret River and the “isms” of conflict • Racism • Ways of seeing: black is somehow ‘wrong’, • Imperialism (esp. cultural imperialism) • Colonialism • Paternalism (or patriarchy) • Capitalism (loosely! Dog-eat-dogism, really) • Grab-ism (obsession with ownership as power) • Communication • (The Lieutenant – Kate Grenville)

Concepts and conflict Developing a stance You need to have devoted enough time exploring what the core texts have to say about conflict that you have your own ideas. You might agree; you might see elements of the way the text you’re using deals with conflict in your own life and experiences; you might challenge the perspectives – or outcomes – offered in the core text. In total, you have to produce three writing ‘projects’ (one in Unit 3; one in Unit 4; one in the exam) that express (or ‘show’) a view (or some views) about the nature of ‘encountering conflict’. Developing an opinion is a pretty good starting point: knowing what you want to say to people is half the battle!

“Won’t you stand by me ...?” Try to work out a “stance”. Means point of view. Opinion. A useful process is to ask yourself questions about encountering conflict. One often leads to other questions, the answers to which can “lead” you to a better understanding, or a more coherent or complex view. • For example, how often are we presented with conflict as a battle between “good” and “evil”? (Think “Star Wars” or the Harry Potter series of films and books) Is this distinction helpful? Can we say that – most often – where conflict arises, one side is “good” the other “bad”? Is this duality all that common? What happens where there are not just two sides, but several? Answering these will give you a few ideas about how you see conflict through some of the ways it’s presented to you.

Writing • What sort of writing? • What sort/s of writing do you find best or easiest? • What formats, focuses, styles or parallels can you ‘extract’ from the core texts? • What processes to generate the pieces?

Man, like some days, this job fully sucks To write, you have to be a writer ... But what comes after “The”, o Muse? There’s a theory going around that says before you can write, you have to be able to go into this fully mystic wicked trance and some sick little dude with wings wearing a sheet kind of floats into the scene and, like, tells you what to write ... Rubbish. You have to write. That’s it. Pen. Paper. Word processor. Typewriter, Thumbnail dipped in tar ... G.O. Stop when finished.

(Con)Text extenders • Sub-cores: Omagh, and The Line – Martin & Arch Flanagan • Films: • Mississippi Burning; All Quiet on the Western Front (book & film); Oh what a lovely war; The Odd Angry Shot; Guilty by Suspicion; Kramer v Kramer; The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith (book & film); Bridge over the River Kwai; Cry Freedom • Novels: • The Savage Crows – Robert Drewe; The Div ine Wind – Gary Disher; Capricornia – Xavier Herbert; The Road – Cormac McCarthy

Encountering Conflict