"Conflict is universal and comes in many forms, the conflicts we face and the way in which we deal with them shape our being".

Authors Avatar

Area of study essay – draft

Liam Hennessey EA1

Mrs Herman

Conflict is universal and comes in many forms, the conflicts we face and the way in which we deal with them shape our being”.

Conflict in all its varying form’s is a universal theme in our world. Where there is no conflict there is no life. It is the driving force by which change occurs. The outcome of a conflict determines to a large extent how we are affected, but what really shapes us is the type of conflict we face and how we go about confronting the various and inevitable forms of conflict that are a constant factor in human life and what we do or do not learn from the experiences.

Conflict is defined as – a struggle to resist or overcome, a contest of opposing forces.

Winning and losing are superficial terms that are applied to conflict but are not the only indications of the change that has resulted – they are only perceptions in people’s minds. We are changed by conflict as a whole; the outcome, the type of conflict and how we face it are all factors in how much or how little the conflict will change us. There are hundreds of conflicts we face each day, and every seemingly insignificant one has an impact on who we are.

“ It is not whether you win or lose, its how you play the game.”

In this area of study conflict has been changed from a rather two dimensional connotation of the word consisting of only winners and losers to a more holistic view of how conflict internally and subtly motivates and shapes us. Conflict means change… or forces change upon people, be they victors, the defeated, whether they embrace it or not. This is proven in the area of study texts

There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. – William Shakespeare

Father and son is an example of conflict between the generations and the expectations parents place on their offspring. It is based on the composers (Cat Stevens) own experiences. The song is a conflict of passions; the father having lost his while the son is just discovering the world and all it has to offer. The father has done the things beckoning to his son and tries to impose on the son his own desires based on his experiences. The son after many years of putting up with his father reign decides he must leave to find his place in the world. He feels caged by his father’s opinions and views of him.

The father tells his son he is not ready for the world and patronises his son by telling him he lacks life experience, even as he is denying it from his son. The father’s advice is to not follow his own desires, as he may get hurt in the process. This stemming from the fathers own experience of the world. Clichéd sayings make the fathers argument considerably weaker. The son expresses his feelings of isolation and frustration at his father for overruling his wants and desire for his life. He seeks to find his own identity away from his fathers counsel and feels that he must leave in order to do so. He will not be conformed by his father. He states that it is harder to deny his own ambitions then to conform to his father’s plans for him.

“ I know I have to go”

One might as well try to ride two horses moving in different directions, as to try to maintain in equal force two opposing or contradictory sets of desires. -- Robert Collier

Father and son is written in a simple but effective way. It is a colloquial, first person song; this allows us to relate more to the characters emotions and ideas. The juxtaposition between the father and son contrasts the two differing opinions and emotions and escalates the war of passions between them. The father is represented as an authoritarian an overbearing person in that he does not ask or plead with his son…. he tells him, this coupled with the well worn clichés he uses, relays to us an insight of why the son feels he must leave. It serves to make the responder think of the similar figures in their life and to empathise with the son. Cat Stevens use’s emotive language to emphasize the son’s frustrations and feelings. The son express his profound hurt to himself adding to the depth of emotions and tension in the poem. The son emotive language and yearning and the fathers dispassionate reasoning perfectly contrasts the two individuals. The effect of the song is a personal one, making us consider the generational conflicts that we have been involved in with our parents and how we felt at the time.

The theme behind “father and son” is one of generational conflict. Conflict between parents and their offspring is universal, it is an accepted fact of maturing and developing that there will be strife between the generations. Probably the main reason why father and son is such a powerful song is that nearly everyone who listens to it can relate to it and the frustrations and angst felt by the son or the parental concern for their offspring. The very use of clichés by the father is a testament to how common this conflict is, there would be no clichés if this conflict weren’t common. This form of conflict is common to mankind, but comes in infinite degrees and variations depending on the people involved, it is cliché in itself that generational conflict comes in many different and diverse forms. Conflict shapes the person we are-

The conflict in father and son will shape and change the father and the son. After years of the son’s inner conflict escalating, it has manifested itself in that the son no longer feels he can live with his father’s decisions regarding his life. There seems to be no solution to the conflict between them and the sons decision of leaving his father will obviously be a pivotal moment in the sons life and is obviously a crucial factor in which direction the sons life will head from there on. If there was no conflict between the father and the son, and the sense of dislocation and frustration that had built up over the years wasn’t there, then there would be no drastic decision to leave and start a new existence for the son. There would be no angst or bad feelings between the father and the son, which will result from this conflict. Conflict shapes who we are, this is a conflict that will have a profound impact on the father and son relationship and will change them both and their ongoing relationship as a result.

Join now!

The song Father and son were written out of the composer’s own experiences. Cat Stevens came from a Greek based family and his father was much like the father his autobiographical song. In his recent autobiography Cat Stevens stated “his temper was sometimes a bit too much for some of us” and “ I do remember a bit of shouting in our household”.  In regards to parenting he said, “I would become an object of a tug-a-war between them, my father usually won. Strangely though I was always closer to my mother”.

Like the son in the song, Cat Stevens ...

This is a preview of the whole essay