Explain any external conflict in the story Mirror Image by Lena Coakley?

INTERNAL CONFLICTS:

·         Alice vs Alice – after the operation Alice has to undergo lots of mental struggle in order to adjust with her new appearance and in order to tune her mind with her new body.

·         Alice vs Gail – the brain of Alice has been transplanted in the body of Gail and hence there is constant conflict between Alice and Gail as Alice the brain has all the time to adjust with Gail the body.

EXTERNAL CONFLICTS:

·         Alice vs Mother – after the operation there are lot of misunderstanding and confusion between them.

·         Alice vs sister – before the operation they were very close but after the operation Jenny does not trust Alice completely and there is doubt and conflict between them.

·         Alice vs Mr. Jarred, and society – Alice is also at constant conflict with society and Mr. Jarred who mistakes her to be Gail – his deceased daughter.

Why did the narrator wish ‘there were no mirrors’

The narrator sincerely wished there were no mirrors as mirrors were often confusing her and reminding her of her changed appearance due to the brain-transplant operation. Often she felt there was someone else standing in front of her as her new image was different from her old one.

What were some of the problems faced by Alice after the operation?

After the operation Alice had to lots of adjustment as her mind and body were lacking proper coordination. She had to reorient herself about how to speak and move in the hospital. At first everything looked strange – the images, the colours and etc. Her skin responded slowly to sensations. People’s voices appeared different. She often bit her tongue while talking. Her tone has changed. She had to do a lot of adjustments to cop up with all these problems.

Describe Alice’s encounter with Mr. Jarred on Bedford Avenue.

the pronoun reference replaces a noun, but you have to make sure there's no room for confusion.

in the first sentence "her" could be referring to shely or to the sister. the answer there is "shelly called her sister and told her about the new baby."

in the second sentence "it" could be referring to the roof or the floor. the answer there is "since the roof leaks on the family room floor, we need to repair the roof."

to eliminate ambiguous remote or broad reference it is necessary to focus on anaphoric reference. by definition "anaphoric reference means that a word in a text refers back to other ideas in the text for its meaning." the references should be clear and leave no room for ambiguity.

in the first case the pronoun it probably refers to the car but it has not been mentioned before so we should replace it for the car. in doing so the statement becomes clear.

in sentence number   two   the pronoun he refers to charles dickens the author. yet, the first half of the sentence is about the book a tale of two cities. to repair this it would be better to rephrase the first half : after i read   a tale of two cities by dickens, he so as to remove the remote reference.