Collision of opposites

Contrast can be held in suspension indefinitely.

But once the opposing sides confront each other and try to change the status quo, they slip into open conflict.

Here's the snippet that opened this lesson, with a confrontation between Captain Hook and Peter Pan:

"Proud and insolent youth," said Hook, "prepare to meet thy doom."

"Dark and sinister man," Peter answered, "have at thee."

You can see everything we've talked about in this lesson:

Contrasting features (proud/dark, insolent/sinister, youth/age).
Juxtaposition of characters (Pan vs Hook).
Emotional effect (drama, excitement).
And it escalates into conflict ("prepare to meet thy doom", "have at thee"—they're literally going to fight).

You can see this is a step up from the one line conflict: here each character gets one line to accuse or make their case to the other.

Here are some examples of contrasting characters confronting each other:

"Come on, you ancient prawn!" Mikolaj shouted through the rain. "Step in the net!"

The sea-beast glared at him with silent malevolence, as if evaluating him.

"You only care about yourself," I yelled. "You’re a textbook narcissist!"

"And you say you care about other people," he snapped back, "but really you’re just a coward."

Have fun. This is a moment when you can release all of that contrast you've been building throughout this lesson.

Let a couple of characters loose on each other.

Write two lines in which contrasting characters enter direct confrontation.

We know that contrast and juxtaposition comes not only from characters, but also the world.

For our final activity, let's apply that to conflict, too.

Contrast & juxtaposition