Conflict In Ordinary People

A Family Without Words
In the award winning movie, Ordinary People, Calvin, Beth, and Conrad face major conflict due to silence and violence to the loss of their family member, Buck. The family endures many feelings to discuss but they are avoiding communication. Conrad is the main character and struggles with the loss of his brother. This affects him deeply as well as the family and causes avoidance of one another. They easily fall into arguments and quit many daily activities due to grief. Although the family suffered a major loss, it leads to major silence and violence, causing a lot of conflict in the movie.
In the beginning, the main character, Conrad, felt as though his entire world came crashing down after a horrific boating accident
The mother is not helping the family stay hopeful towards their grief, instead she builds worser pain and distress in the household. For example, when the family has a photo together, Beth tries to avoid her son at all costs, they fight over the camera using a form of violence after Calvin tried to put the two in one picture with one another. The mother uses prevention and silence to push her son away from her grief over Buck. Another example of poor family communication is when Conrad accidentally walks into his mother sitting in her dead sons room. Conrad tries to talk and portray his feelings and communicate but Beth uses withdrawal and walks out of the room, completely walks away from the confrontation. She should have answered Conrad and expressed her grief about Buck to him, and they could have had a stronger relationship. Although Conrad tries to show his mother love and affection, she denies. The mother, at the end, is confronted by Calvin and is accused for burying her love with Buck, and moves away, causing the family a break and worsens the communication with her, using avoidance. Conrad and Calvin, then, communicate much more efficiently with one