"gentlemen," said mr. stonecrop. "back to the issue. reverend buckminster, we came here to ask you to us rescue the town. you've seen the squalor on malaga. there isn't a soul on that island who isn't a drunk or a thief. we tried educating them. we built a school and hired a teacher, all at the town's expense. but that didn't do a single bit of good."

"and besides," added sheriff elwell, "teaching those people is like teaching dogs to walk on their hind legs. all they know is living off others."

"i'm not sure but that it wouldn't be the lord's work to put them somewhere they can be safe," said mr. stonecrop. "a place where they can be cared for."

–lizzie bright and the buckminster boy,
gary d. schmidt

which sentence best describes the conflict developing in this passage?

the townspeople of phippsburg want to get rid of turner’s father.
reverend buckminster must rescue phippsburg from the people of malaga.
the townspeople of phippsburg want to get rid of the people on malaga island.
sheriff elwell is opposed to mr. buckminster’s efforts to teach the people of malaga.

The answer is C.) The townspeople of Phippsburg want to get rid of the people on Malaga Island.

C) The townspeople of Phippsburg want to get rid of the people on Malaga Island.

Explanation: in literature, a conflict is a struggle between opposite forces, usually between a character (the main character or a very important one) and himself (internal conflict), society or another character (external conflict). From the given options, the sentence that best describes the conflict developing in the passage is the corresponding to option C: The townspeople of Phippsburg want to get rid of the people on Malaga Island, because they think that teaching them is useless and it spends the town's resources.

the first proposition is to question economic materialism and victorian christianity. the lines are:

“it moves us not.—great god! i'd rather be

a pagan suckled in a creed outworn; ”

wordsworth is stating that nature no longer interests mankind, that the latter is not “moved” by it and explains that ancient western paganism had a more positive attitude concerning nature since it lacked the perv erted judaeo-christian interpretation of having received the world and all its animals and elements from god to use as we , instead of humans actually being not only part of nature but its wardens, meant to appreciate it and protect it.

the next lines are:

“so might i, standing on this pleasant lea,

have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

have sight of proteus coming from the sea;

or hear old triton blow his wreathed horn.”

wordsworth here make it very clear that by actually looking and contemplating nature, human beings would reconnect with happiness, serenity and purpose. the use of mythological figures is quite evocative as well, proteus is a greek mythological god of the changing sea. he personifies the sea that changes, which symbolizes the way nature changes and inevitably can change to be destructive not only due to natural causes but to human pollution. furthermore, the sea is even more symbolic since all life originated in the sea so it is not only our past but our future since no life form in our planet can survive without water and if all water is destroyed in earth all life will be gone as well.

he then uses triton which is symbolic of the synthesis of both nature and mankind. triton is a mythological greek god that has the upper body of a man and the lower body of a fish (a merman). this human fish duality evokes the fact that humans are not only human but also part of nature, the fish tail representing nature. the main attribute of this god was that he used a conch shell as a horn to calm the roaring seas. in other words, triton uses nature through science for the benefit of human sailors who risk death during tempests. with the use of such metaphor, wordworth is conveying the message that human technology   is supposed to use nature to preserve nature and thereby humanity as well.