Conflict seem to be a major thing in both books everyone suffers the effects with the different types of conflict such as man vs. self, man vs. man, nature, society.
The Road to Chlifa and Dreamspeaker has very similar aspects of conflict that both protagonists seem to go through. Both main characters have inner problems that conflict with their lives that add major problems. They both have problems with society that cause their way of life to change completely. They also have conflicts with nature they need to adapt to nature to find shelter.
Man vs. self is the major conflict that the characters have their inner problems effect the very way of their life and causes them to act differently then they would. The book The Road to Chlifa the main character Karim he suffers his biggest inner problem the death of his girlfriend who he has just seen died. This causes him to think clearly with the things that are happening around him and it also affects he judgment of people. When he has decided to go with Maha to Chlifa the whole time all he could think about was Nada, which makes him to judge Maha according to what Mrs. Farhat thinks of her “a bad seed, I tell you! A bad seed that will come to no good!”(pg 52- The Road to Chlifa) He doesn't get to know her because he was to busy thinking of Nada that makes him dislike Maha, which then afterwards causes Maha's death. Even though it was Maha who was continuously bringing things about Nada which made Karim start asking questions to him self and won paying attention to those. Also Karim problems caused him to think uncleanly because his lack of realizing that he was not the only one who suffered Nada death he seem to be unable to understand that Nada was important to Maha as well. Those are conflicts that Karim in Road to Chlifa goes through. As for Peter he suffers from these visions that show up very often that affects him greatly. They cause him to do things that he seems to have no control over. For instance “Peter wanted to scream but his throat was sealed so tight he could barely breathe, he to run but his legs wouldn't move” (pg102-Dreamspeaker)this tells you that he mind even effects his physical ability this clearly show that his visions are extremely powerful they have the ability to take over him. The visions that continuously show seem to shape as he goes through life in the beginning he didn't know what it look like, but then afterwards hearing about the myths and stories that the old man talk about like the “ the lights and little noises are the Stlalacum. Sltlalacum are strong medicine, strong magic.”(pg 72-Dreamspeaker) or the myth of the ravens not being born bad “no sir, not even the raven was born bad” (pg73-dreamspeaker) and then throughout the stories heard the visions of the characters in the stories take form. Peter's visions also affect his judgments he is not able to see that the visions he had are the ones that make the decisions for him it makes him do things that he doesn't for example “Peter knew what it was, and he was afraid to look behind in case he saw the thing coming across the dew-damped grass, both heads aiming for him.”(pg24) The vision made him for sure no to go back it clearly forced him to run away because he was afraid and couldn't face it. Peter may had conflicts with his visions but they also helped him understand what he needed to do in order to over come fear and learn the true meaning of family and decision making.
The other conflict that both protagonists go through is man vs. society. The society in war going on in Karim's life affects his goal of living life normally after it. Society creates a barrier for Karim when they decide to go to Chlifa all the routes they intended to take were blocked and this obstacle forced them to nature “Children, what would you say to a real trip through the wildness, far from roads and their danger?” (pg 70-Road to Chlifa) Milad knew that the wildness would be better than the road they intended to take because they were more dangerous than wildness. Society has become so dangerous that they can't even be near society that if they did it would be fatal. The society that they once knew is now the major cause of their lives it is the biggest conflict which to now they must seek somewhere else to live that is no where near society it's self. Society has not only made them leave but it has destroyed there dreams of living a normal life there. The two suffer the conflicts of society greatly that they go through a great deal of suffering because it has killed the things they loved most Karim's love and Maha's sister which causes lots of other conflicts that they now also have to face to reach there goal of finding a better place. In Dreamspeaker Peter also suffers from society it conditions of living without being bothered has drove him to seek a normal life else where. One reason he has to leave was because of the people when the blame him for breaking the window “A sudden crash of the window glass and Peter froze. He could feel eyes burning into his back, feel fingers pointing at him. New kids fault”(pg20-Dreamspeaker)
