The Way Individuals Respond to Conflict Is Often Determined by Past Experiences

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Prompt: The way individuals respond to conflict is often determined by past experiences Past experiences in an individual’s life has a vast impact on their present self, and thus, affects their response to certain events. Conflict is like chess; each person respond differently to every game place. Just like how chess players study the methodology behind past games that they may have lost, an individual’s response to an argument is usually based upon past circumstances. It is these past experiences that allow for learning to occur. Thus, when a disputation occurs, an individual may act completely differently from their usual character. However, if one does not have any experiences at all, more often than not, the conflict ends badly; resulting in a changed morale. Conversely, individuals can potentially dismiss their past experience in the event that their moral values outweigh the significance of that prior encounter. Through conflict as a mechanism, past experiences serve as a learning curve for a person’s development. Whether the personal growth is positive or negative, it molds the individual into a different shape, as they are now equipped with new knowledge. Thus, when they are confronted with conflict, they will respond in a manner that is considerably out of their character. In Graham Greene’s anti-war novel, The Quiet American, Byron’s poem in the preface is a parallel to the alteration and self-deception of Thomas Fowler; a seemingly detached British reporter living in Vietnam. Correspondingly to Fowler, the poem emphasises the importance in a person’s ability to separate realism from idealism. Fowler is seen to be in denial of any desire to be “engage” in the Indo-China war. It is not until he accompanies others into the after math of battlefields that he possess the ability to break free from his idealistic shell of being “disengage” and is finally

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