Power, conflict and social issues in texts

Welcome to Power, Conflict, and Social Issues in Texts

Have you ever read a story about a rebellion, watched a speech calling for change, or noticed an advertisement highlighting social inequality? Writers and creators constantly use language to explore who holds influence, who fights back, and how societies treat different groups of people.

In this chapter, we will look closely at how texts depict power, conflict, and wide-ranging social issues. In the IB MYP, you are not tested on a set list of books. Instead, you develop the critical tools to examine any unseen text—whether it is a dramatic script, a novel extract, a speech, an opinion column, or a visual poster—and explain how creators reveal struggles between people, systems, and beliefs.

Note: For broader explorations of how creator, audience, and context interact, see the chapter "Purpose, context and audience."

1. Understanding Power in Texts

Power is the ability or authority to control, influence, or direct people, resources, rules, and events. In literature and non-literary texts, power is rarely static; it shifts, fractures, and provokes reactions.

Types of Power Creators Explore

Creators depict power in many forms across literary and non-literary extracts:

• Institutional and Systemic Power: Authority backed by legal systems, governments, social hierarchies, class structures, or rules. In texts depicting utopias, dystopias, or historical regimes, systems often enforce control over ordinary citizens.
• Interpersonal Power: Power dynamics between individual characters—such as within families, friendships, or romantic relationships—where one person exerts emotional, physical, or social dominance.
• Power of Voice and Expression: Who is allowed to speak, and who is silenced or ignored? A creator might contrast an official speech using elevated register with the suppressed voice of an ordinary individual.

Linguistic and Stylistic Choices that Reveal Power

When you analyse unseen extracts (Criterion A), look closely at how language reflects authority:

• Imperative verbs and declarative statements: Characters or speakers in power often issue commands (e.g., "Halt," "Comply") and state their opinions as undeniable facts.
• Modal verbs of certainty vs. hesitation: Dominant voices use high modality ("You must," "We will"), whereas disempowered voices may use tentative language ("Perhaps," "Could we").
• Tone and Register: Formal, rigid registers can create emotional distance and demonstrate institutional dominance, while informal or fragmented registers can suggest vulnerability.
• Visual elements (in visual/multimodal texts): Camera angles, framing, layout, and typography show power. A figure shown from a low angle appears large, commanding, and powerful, while a figure viewed from a high angle can look small and powerless.

Key Takeaway: Power is always communicated through creator choices. Ask yourself: Who has authority in this text? Who lacks it? How do specific words, sentence structures, or layout choices demonstrate this imbalance?

2. Conflict: The Catalyst of Action

Without conflict, stories would stall and persuasive arguments would have no cause to champion. Conflict occurs when opposing forces collide—whether ideas, desires, groups, or systems.

Levels of Conflict

• Internal Conflict: A struggle within a character's or speaker's mind (e.g., duty versus personal desire, innocence versus experience, allegiance versus betrayal). In creative writing tasks, an internal monologue is an effective way to showcase this friction.
• Interpersonal Conflict: A direct clash between individuals with conflicting values, goals, or social positions.
• Societal Conflict (Power and Protest): A clash between individuals and larger systems. This includes campaigns for justice, peace, freedom, independence, or rebellion against oppressive social norms and expectations.

Stylistic Techniques Used to Build Tension

Writers do not simply tell us there is conflict; they construct tension using specific literary and structural devices:

• Juxtaposition: Placing two opposing ideas, characters, or settings side by side to emphasize their differences (for example, contrasting extreme wealth with poverty, or quiet innocence with violent action).
• Sentence Structure and Punctuation: Short, fragmented sentences, sharp caesuras, or abrupt stops speed up pacing and mirror panic, urgency, or violence. Long, complex sentences can slow pacing, building suspense.
• Imagery and Connotation: Words packed with harsh, discordant sounds (cacophony) or violent connotations evoke friction and emotional turmoil.
• Dialogue and Turn-Taking: In drama or prose, interruptions, overlaps, and stark silences highlight conversational power struggles.

Memory Aid — The Tension Checklist (J-I-P-S):
• Juxtaposition (What contrasts are clashing?)
• Imagery & Connotation (What emotional undertones do the words carry?)
• Pacing & Punctuation (Is the rhythm frantic, broken, or drawn-out?)
• Structure (Where do the turning points and climaxes occur?)

Key Takeaway: Conflict drives narratives and persuasive texts. Look beyond the plot to examine how creators use sentence structures, juxtaposition, and vocabulary to make the reader feel that tension.

3. Exploring Social Issues in Texts

Literature and non-fiction texts reflect the real world. Creators use their craft to shine a light on challenges faced by communities, cultures, and societies.

Key Issue Areas in MYP Texts

The MYP framework highlights several core areas of human experience:

• Justice, Systems, and Freedom: Texts exploring power and protest, civil rights, peace and conflict, or the balance between state control and individual independence.
• Social Roles, Inclusion, and Diversity: Texts examining gender expectations, social class barriers, the marginalisation of minorities, and struggles for equality.
• Displacement and Communities: Texts dealing with migration, journeys, globalisation, and what happens when people are uprooted from their homes or cultures.
• Survival, Utopias, and Dystopias: Texts questioning whether ideal societies are possible, or showing human resilience in the face of collapse.
• Moral Dilemmas: Narratives focusing on allegiance, betrayal, revenge, atonement, and forgiveness.

Did You Know?

Dystopian fiction is rarely just about an imaginary future. Creators write about fictional extremes to alert contemporary readers to real-world social issues happening right now, such as censorship, surveillance, or environmental neglect.

Key Takeaway: When analysing a social issue, ask: What perspective is the creator offering? Does the text support the status quo, challenge it, or reveal the emotional cost of social inequality?

4. Analysing Power and Conflict in Unseen Texts (Criterion A)

In the on-screen examination, the Analysis task presents two unseen extracts—which might include literary prose, poetry, drama extracts, speeches, news articles, or posters—and asks you to analyse, compare, and contrast them.

Step-by-Step Analytical Process

Step 1: Identify the central tension. What is the root cause of the power struggle or social issue in each extract?
Step 2: Track creator choices. Identify specific linguistic, literary, and visual devices (e.g., figurative language, tone, mood, layout, sentence forms) used to portray this tension.
Step 3: Evaluate audience impact. How do these choices position the reader or viewer? Are we made to feel sympathy, outrage, fear, or a desire for change?
Step 4: Connect and compare (Criterion A iv). Where do the two extracts agree, contrast, or use different techniques to address similar issues of power or conflict?

Using the P-E-E-L Framework for Criterion A

To justify your opinions and maintain an organized, coherent response (Criteria A and B), build each analytical paragraph with purpose:

• Point: State clearly how the extract portrays power, conflict, or a social issue.
• Evidence: Introduce a short, direct quotation or identify a specific visual detail.
• Explanation & Terminology: Name the creator's technique (e.g., metaphor, imperative verb, juxtaposition, sombre tone) and explain its effect.
• Link: Connect your analysis back to the overall purpose, audience impact, or the second text for comparison.

Common Mistake to Avoid: Merely retelling the story or summarizing the article. The examiners want to see how the creator constructs meaning, not just what happens.

5. Producing Texts on Power and Conflict (Criteria B, C, and D)

In the Creative Writing section of the eAssessment, you will be given a visual stimulus and asked to write a response of 400–600 words using one of three prompt formats:

1. An internal monologue expressing a narrator's thoughts and feelings in the scene.
2. A narration of events that follow the moment shown.
3. A description of what the person in the image can see.

Applying Concepts of Power and Conflict to Creative Writing

If the visual image shows a tense situation, an isolated figure, or a stark environment, you can weave power and conflict directly into your piece:

• For an Internal Monologue: Show psychological conflict. Use fragmented thoughts, rhetorical questions, and shifts in register to show a character torn between obedience and protest, or loyalty and betrayal.
• For a Narration: Focus on a decisive moment of change. Establish who holds control at the start, introduce a catalyst of conflict, and show the consequences of resisting or submitting.
• For a Description: Use sensory details, evocative imagery, and atmospheric mood. Describe surroundings that embody power (e.g., towering, sterile walls of an institution) contrasted with fragile elements of human survival.

Crafting Your Response: Quality Over Quantity

• Stick to the Word Guidance: Aim for 400–600 words. Plan carefully so your writing has a clear, controlled structure with a sustained focus (Criterion B).
• Show, Don't Just Tell: Instead of writing "The officer was powerful and mean," write "His boots clipped the pavement in sharp, mechanical strikes, each step demanding immediate silence." (Criterion C).
• Linguistic Accuracy: Ensure your grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence structures are varied and controlled to serve your intended mood and style (Criterion D).

Chapter Review & Self-Check

Before moving forward, check your understanding against these core skills:

• Can you identify linguistic markers of power, such as imperative commands, register shifts, and assertive modal verbs?
• Can you explain how creators use literary devices (juxtaposition, pacing, figurative language) to generate tension and conflict?
• Can you evaluate how texts reflect broader social issues like systems of control, rebellion, inequality, and human rights?
• Can you plan a 400–600 word creative response using monologue, narration, or description that demonstrates an awareness of audience impact?