Sociological Theory of Conflict

d. Theory of Conflict

According to Roberts and Jacobs 88 “conflict may be presented not as direct opposition, but rather as a set of comparative or contrastive ideas or values.” While Jaffe and Scott 2 state that “conflict simply means that a story brings together two opposing forces which we call a protagonist that is, “one who struggles for” and an antagonist “one who struggles against” and then resolves the resultant struggle between these forces.” According to them conflict is a necessary element in fiction. They state that conflict is the backbone of a story; it is conflict that provides the pattern and direction and gives the sense of a story going somewhere. On the other hand, Stanton 16 explains that there are two kinds of conflicts, “the internal conflicts between two desires within a character” and “the external conflicts between characters or between a character and his environment.”

2. Sociological Theory of Conflict

Fichter 230 states “conflict is that form of mutual interaction through which two or more persons attempt to remove each other, either by annihilating or by rendering the other party ineffectual.” While Gillin and Gillin 625 state “conflict is the social process in which individuals or groups seek their ends by directly challenging the antagonist by violence or threat of violence.” According to Koenig 262 “conflict usually involves violence and is personal, in its higher forms it becomes an impersonal struggle to establish and preserve rules of justice and moral precepts.” Gillin and Gillin 633-634 distinguish there are four roots of conflict. The first root of conflict is individual differences. According to Gillin and Gillin “individual differences give different point of view and provide disparities which lead to clashes.” The second is that cultural differences. Cultural differences often make people misjudge another culture so that it may form conflicts between individual and also conflict between groups. The third is clashing interests. Each individual has its own interests. The differences of interests may become the source of conflict. The last root is social change. Social change may divide and separate people into groups which cause competition. Therefore, it may become the cause of the conflict. Simmel 263 in Koenig’s book distinguishes four types of conflict. The first type is war. War is universal in primitive life. He states that “relationships between tribes are almost always marked by hostility.” In addition, he states “war provides almost the only means of contact between alien groups; so long as peace exists, the groups remain indifferent to each other.” The second type is feud or factional strife. It is “an intragroup form of war.” According to him feud or factional strife is “based on an alleged injustice done to one member, or family, by another which is regarded by the group as a threat to its unity.” The third type of conflict is litigation. It is a “conflict which assumes a judicial form”. Simmel states “it is a struggle waged by an individual, or group, to protect rights to possessions.” The last type of conflict is the conflict of impersonal ideals. He states “in the conflict of impersonal ideals, the struggle is differentiated from the personalities waging it.” Because this type of conflict is carried on by individuals not for themselves but for an ideal, the struggle often assumes an extremely fierce and merciless character.

3. Cultural Theory of Social Class and Caste System a. Social Class