Greg vs. Himself
Throughout the book Slam, by Walter Dean Myers, the main character Greg faces conflicts with himself. He struggles with keeping his grades up along with doing well in basketball. After taking a hard test in his math class, Slam is not exactly content with his grade. He meets with his girlfriend, Mtisha, and says, "I showed Mtisha the math test Mr. Greene had given me. The 34 was in red, underlined, and circled. Maybe he thought I was going to miss it or read it like it was 43 or something"(131). He tries to get help with his grades, but nothing seems to be helping and showing as much progress as he wants it see. His parents try to help Greg with his grades by hiring him a tutor, but he denies the offer, when he gets offended by the fact that his parents are trying to fix or change him. Even Mtisha tries to help him, by tutoring him herself, but nothing seems to be working. Throughout the novel, getting his grades up is something he tries to improve greatly. He also can not seem to impress his coach enough to get good playing time on his school basketball team, because of his negative attitude. His coach thinks he is very cocky and would rather bench their best player, Slam, then have to deal with his bad attitude. This is a conflict with himself because he needs to learn how to control his horrible tendencies to be negative and rude, which is a struggle for him throughout the novel. When thinking about why he is being benched, Slam says, "The second half started with me sitting on the bench. The coach looked over at me and I looked the other way. If he was expecting me to show humble he was wrong big time"(112). This exhemplifies the fact that Slam is having not only a conflict with the coach, but a conflict with himself, because he needs to understand why the coach is benching him. Once he understands that is attitude is the reason why he is being benched, and once he improves his attitude, he will get more playing time. Throughout the book, he will start to figure out this conflicts and work towards conquering them.
Greg vs. Person
All throughout the book, Greg gets into many arguments and troubles with people. Many people in the book think that Greg has a big attitude and they confront him in the book. He also has trouble in school which leads to problems with others. Throughout the book Greg is always wondering what Ice is up to and if he's dealing drugs. This has a big impact on his relationship with Ice. Also, him and Mtisha have many problems throughout the book with whether Mtisha really loves Greg or not. Greg has lots of feelings for her though. The biggest act of man vs. person occurs when Greg goes to Ice's party after the Carver vs. Latimer game. Greg goes up to the rooftop and sees Ice handing a girl cocaine. "Get away from me" (257). This shows that Greg starts to get very angry with Ice and starts to push him away and Ice does not like it at all. "Punk" (257). They both engage in a fight and both end up hurt. Greg then questions if they will ever become friends again. This part in the book creates a whole source of suspense and uncertainty over what will happen next. Greg now knows that Ice was lying to him throughout the whole book and he struggles to find the answer to why Ice would have betrayed him like he did.
Greg vs. Society
In the book, Slam, by Walter Dean Myers, Greg faces a large amout of ordeals in his life because of the area that he lives in. For example, he has to stay strong alot of the time because of all of the influences with drugs around every day. "I saw these vials of drugs all of the time in the park, gutters, and in the bathrooms at school"(256) . This may be especially hard when one of his friends does drugs and also deals drugs too. This may be hard for slam to deal with because he can not do drugs if he wants to play sports and raise his grades in school higher. He also has to deal with shootings in his area that are very dangerous. "Drive bys really get to me, you can just be walking down the street or going to the store and get shot because some dude don't know how to shoot strait"(15). With all this going on around him all of the time and playing lots of basketball he has trouble with his grades and school. His grandma was also sick in the hospital.Slam can easily get seriously hurt on the street or easily get addicted to drugs. With all this going through his mind every day it can take a toll on his grades that he needs to raise and to get a starting position on the basketball team.
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