The purpose of this essay to explain how Guy Vanderhaeghe used conflict to express theme and to show significant change in characters in the short story Dancing Bear (Vanderhaeghe 367-378). Vanderhaeghe may well have consciously used conflict for these purposes in Dancing Bear, and with that possibility in mind, this essay examines the use of conflict in the short story for these purposes. An important disclaimer is in order, however, prior to proceeding with this examination. This short story was written in 1951, at a time when the behavioral changes and the physiological bodily changes wrought by Alzheimer's disease were neither widely known nor well understood. The portrayal of Dieter Bethge in Dancing Bear is a near perfect textbook description of the effects of Alzheimer's disease on many of its elderly victims. Similarly, the portrayal of Mrs Hax in Dancing Bear is an accurate description of a care giver who neither understands the effects on her charge of his perception of the loss of control over his live nor is especially interested in those effects other than to the extent that they impinge on her own activities.
Moving back to the primary focus of this essay, the use of conflict by Vanderhaeghe to express theme and to show character change, two sets of conflict were used in the short story. One set of conflict involved the ongoing interactions between Dieter Bethge and Mrs Hax. In this set of continuing and escalating conflict, Dieter Bethge fought an unsuccessful battle to regain control over his life while simultaneously realizing that he was contesting not only with Mrs Hax but also against his own mental and physical deterioration, the causes of which he did not understand. Mrs Hax, by contrast, was stable in her focus - perform the letter of her duties as caregiver, while maintaining the situation to her own benefit to the extent that was feasible.
The second set of continuous conflict behav...