I am writing an essay about a novel written by Robert Swindells called 'Stone Cold'. It is about a young teenage boy,called Link, who is forced out of his home and then has to live on the streets when his mother meets a new but evil partner, called Vince. Link tries his hardest when he moves to London but, because he his young and naïve, he can't find work so he has no shelter. Conflict is developed in the novel through our growing concern for Links welfare and survival. I will be focusing on the conflict between Link and Shelter only.
The first main cause of conflict between Link and Shelter when Link and Ginger laughed at Shelter. This is shown when Shelter says “ I responded in my usual way and as I passed I distinctly hea
...rd them laughing. Them laughing started Shelters mission to find Link which added extra difficulties into his life. Since they laughed Shelter decided that they would be his next victims. This shows that Shelter is a very paranoid and disturbed person who will be pursuing Ling and Ginger throughout the novel which makes this a big source of conflict in the novel. Link and Ginger think of the laughing as a harmless gesture but Shelter takes this extremely seriously and has to take action.
The second main cause of conflict build up is when Link and Ginger start to separate and Shelter, who has been observing them, is getting closer to finding them. Shelter shows that he has been observing them by stating, “so I'm going to watch my laughing boys, and when they
separate we'll see who has the last laugh.” Shelter getting closer to finding them causes conflict because you don’t know if Link is safe or not and you worry what might happen to him next.
The last main cause of conflict, just as the conflict reaches its climax, is when Shelter has caught up with Link and Shelter's persona of the harmless but well – meaning old man has worked and Link is fooled into going into Shelter's house but Link tries to escape. As Link tries to escape he explains “as he moved towards the switch by the door I made a dash for the window . The light came on. I grabbed for the drapes as he whirled with an oath coming for me. I wrapped my arms round the curtains and swung. The content of the quote describes the intensity of shelters attack on link. The conflict grows as shelter becomes more agitated . Our tension reaches its peak when the police walk in just as Link's about to die, and Shelter think his plan has worked.
To conclude the conflict is developed throughout the story through the growing tension between Link and Shelter. I feel that it was a very interesting and gripping story but the ending for me let it down a bit because it was a open ending, it didn’t tie up all the loose end and it was still quite sad ending and I personally like a happy endings.
