Conflict

One of your exam questions asks you to focus on the conflict in “Trash” by Souvankham Thammavongsa. There are multiple levels of conflict in the short story.

First, the central conflict in the story is that the narrator is a disappointment in the eyes of her mother-in-law. After a clash with Miss Emily over the messy state of the apartment the narrator shares with her husband, she realizes that she will never be good enough in her mother-in-law’s eyes. In spite of this, the narrator is aware that this conflict will not stop her from craving Miss Emily’s love and recognition, especially because she no longer has a mother herself: 

But I wanted her lov...