Essay paper review

Closed Reading Essay

“Conflict” is something that we encounter daily. We see it happens and we are in it ourselves. Whether it is a simple disagreement over a dress color or argument over political parties, we are in conflict with one another. To solve a conflict, one has to change and compromise to create harmony between conflicts. So what is the definition of conflict? Dictionary.com defined conflict as “to come into collision or disagreement; be contradictory, at variance, or in opposition; clash”. There are seven different types of conflict in literature, we will however, highlight only 4 main conflicts: Person, nature, self, and society. The story, “Refresh, Refresh”, by Benjamin Percy has done an amazing job of showing the masculinity of a man, boys who want to be a man, and grief the passing of their youth. It’s a story that brilliantly crafted to show how Josh, the protagonist and his friend, Gordon deal with many hardships and conflicts in their life and how they changed themselves from destructive, lost, immoral boy to goal-driven and honorable man by resolving their conflicts. The conflicts in the story made Josh and Gordon destructive, lost, and even immoral. In the book, resolving conflict can helps you grow.

The conflict made Josh and Gordon destructive when Seth Johnson, a linebacker brutally beat up Gordon in the beginning of the story. Being in a constant fear of being picked on by Seth again, Gordon and Josh turned themselves into destructive character. Gordon and Josh are constantly fighting each other. They fought each other to the point of having permanent injury and internal bleeding. “We fought so much our wounds never got a chance to heal and our faces took on a permanent look of decay. Our wrists felts swollen, our knees ached, our joints felt full of tiny dry wasps.” (Percy). They fought each other to be tougher and hurt people who hurt them.

One evening, Josh went to hunt with Gordon. Gordon and Josh shot a four point stag during their hunting trip. After the animal has died, they skin it, cut out the antler and neatly store the meat. By killing the animal, Gordon and Josh displayed person vs. nature conflict. Their destructive level intensified when Gordon and Josh spotted Seth in the forest during their deer hunting trip and began their vengeance. They took revenge on Seth and his friends by stealing all their rifles and deflated all their car tires. Gordon took a step further and frightened Seth by dressing up as a monster.

Just before Christmas, the destructive level finally came to an end when Dave Lightener, a recruiting officer who informed family the news of their loved one, showed up at Seth’s door with the most horrific sentence any family will hear I regret to inform you. It turns out Seth father has died. Reflecting on their actions, Josh and Gordon drove down to Seth’s house to return the rifles they had previously stolen while adding some beers and money as extras. Gordon and Josh’s destructive level slowly dies down as they moan for Seth lost while fearing for theirs.

The conflict of not having their father has made them lost. With their fathers gone to war, Josh and Gordon think the society are dull, boring, and filled with old people. “There were old men, like my grandfather, whom I lived with – men who paid their dues, who had worked their jobs and fought their wars and now spent their days at the gas station, drinking bad coffee from Styrofoam cups.” (Percy). Josh and Gordon also starting to feel lost with the idea of not having their father to guide them. So during Josh and Gordon discussion of war and killing Muslim, Josh quickly mocked the idea of war. “”Yeah,” I said. “Kill some people then get myself killed.” I grimaced even as I played along, “That sounds like a good plan.” (Percy). Josh and Gordon doesn’t like the fact that war has taken their father because they are so dependent of their father. Overhearing the conversation, Dave was offended and said that it’s a sick joke.

Not having hear from his father for a long time has made Josh adrift even further. Josh keep hitting the email refresh button in hoping that his father are still alive. “We could only cross our fingers and wish on stars and hit refresh, refresh, hoping they would return to us, praying we would never find Dave Lightener on our porch uttering the words I regret to inform you . . .” (Percy). Haven’t heard from his father for weeks, Josh constantly hit the refresh button until there is an e-mail that said everything is alright. The refresh button is a sign of desperation. Josh and Gordon are in search of their identity, they are lost. While in search for an identity, they picked up the identity of other. They pick up the identity of a hooligan and doing immorality deeds. They started to experiments with drinking in a bar as a minor, picking up women, and having intercourse with them in their room. One day, Dave show up in Josh front porch with news that might regard about Josh and Gordon father wellbeing. Gordon and Josh quickly denial Dave the ability to speak the news and kidnap him. They took their frustration and anger out on him by beating him up senselessly. Josh threatened to kill Dave by pushing him down the Hole of Hell and only to be stop by his conscience. Being depressed, Gordon and Josh rode down the road with wind-breaking speed. Gordon and Josh accepted that their fathers wouldn’t be around anymore and finally regain their true identity. They enlisted in the military and become an honorable man where their father would be proud of them.

I chose this piece because I can really related to the Josh and Gordon in a sense of searching for identity as I step into adulthood. This has been a big conflict to me in the past. I don’t know what to do with my life and what I want to be when I grow up. Being frustrated, I’ve done a lot of stupid things like skipping classes and not doing jack in school. Barely passed high school, I went to a community college and I was still slacking off. During my first college year, my GPA standing is 1.65. One day, I found out my grandmother has passed away and everything snap in focus. My thought are racing and a very important question pop up in my mind, “What have I done in my life to make her proud of me?” I started to set-up goals and slowly achieving them one by one. Having achieved adequate GPA, I was able to get in Mason and now in the Dean’s list. I turn from someone who’s lost to a goal-driven man.

There are many conflict story out there but Benjamin Percy, “Refresh, Refresh” story has done an ingenious job of telling it. The story are thrived on characters so we are able to see closely the characters and their conflicts. Benjamin Percy’s story skillfully lay-out conflicts that drive Josh and Gordon into destructive, lost, and immoral boy, however, once they resolves those conflicts, they become goal-driven and honorable man. I feel connected as I read this story because I also have a conflict that will probably haunt me for the rest of my life. The conflict has driven me into a lesser-being and with efforts I was able to pull myself back up. Compromise are needed to resolve conflict. Aung San Suu Kyi quoted, “If you want to bring an end to long-standing conflict, you have to be prepared to compromise.”