External conflict in a literary work occurs when the main character must overcome a challenge by external forces to grow and mature or restore order to their world. External conflict can be divided into four basic categories: Character vs. Character, Character vs. Nature, Character vs. Society, and Character vs. Technology.
The conflict lies within the protagonist. He wants to achieve a goal, but needs to face his own fears, behaviors, etc. Known as internal conflict.
2a. The Monkey King
An example of external conflict for the monkey king is when he chooses to use Kung Fu to defeat the gods. He does this because he’s trying to prove to the gods (and himself) that he isn’t just a monkey, complicating his internal conflict.
2b. Jin Wang
Jin Wang’s external conflict is his peers. They continuously make racist comments to him- implying that he eats dogs, saying he only just moved there from China, calling him slurs, mispronouncing his name and even threatening to beat him up if he doesn’t do stuff for them. This complicates his internal conflict because it only makes him more ashamed of his background, further enforcing his inability to accept himself as an Asian American.
2c. Danny
Danny’s external conflict is Chin-Kee. Throughout the story, Chin-Kee does a multiple of both embarrassing and stereotypical things, including shouting out the answers in class, making lewd comments about a girl's chest and peeing in the soda can. This complicates Danny’s internal conflict as it scares him to think that his peers will see how his cousin behaves and judge him for it.
