Conflict Resolution

Conflict Resolution

People encounter conflicts very often in their lives. Whether it be an everyday argument with family,

friends, or classmates, or even something more than that, knowing how to deal with issues and

disagreements effectively is really important to having good relationships with the people around you.

Since this is such a common issue, there are thousands of tips online advising you on how to deal with

it.

In The Other Wes Moore, all the different parts of the journey of both the kids growing up

cause a lot of conflict. Both Wes’s face many issues with their family and friends. One major thing that

I noticed with this section that I just read in the past week was how they both really differed in handling

their conflicts. In particular, one really memorable scene was when Wes (not the author) took a gun out

and threatened to hurt someone who had insulted him. This is something that you definitely don’t want

to do in a conflict, and the police eventually had to get involved.

The way that people grow up and are raised affect how people handle issues such as this. As Wes was

taught by everyone around him that it was important to threaten and intimidate the people around him to

get his way, it made him violent and aggressive in conflict. He employed none of the techniques that

might have helped resolve the issues, and did the opposite of a lot of the advice.

In showing us how he handles these “smaller” conflicts, we see that Wes has a long way to go on

improving himself. This foreshadows a lot of the crimes and mistakes he’ll make in the future.

Since conflict resolution is such a huge part of dealing with other people, your conflict resolution skills

really determine a lot of your future trajectory. It’s important to always work on the problem, and not

escalate the argument, making sure to listen and improve both parties.