Clashing Fury: A Junior Narrative Diptych by Monica Hsu (2012)

As our first narrative unit assignment in design, we were told to tell a story that involved internal and external conflict. To further express our stories, we created a diptych with each side representing the two conflicts. My story is about a woman who was late to work, and was met with her angry boss. The boss started yelling at her, and the woman started to feel disrespected. Therefore, she responded with more yelling and quit her job out of pure fury. The next three months, she couldn't find a new job, and had to live with her parents because she could no longer support herself. In my diptych, my first image represents the external conflict: being late. The literal depiction of this is the woman arriving to work late, and seeing her angry boss. My metaphorical depiction of this was a ticking clock. I chose for my photo to be black in white to emphasize the fact that it was a past event. The dark and contrasting colors make the image more terrifying and serious looking to show that being late was a true mistake. The second image represents the internal conflict of anger. In the story, the two characters display raw emotions of fury and frustration. To represent this metaphorically, I chose to photograph a teapot with steam rushing out of the spout. The steam is supposed to display the anger that was expressed by the boss and the woman. Ultimately, the diptych's feeling of somber regret reflects upon the assignment of conflict.