Conflicts in the story "A matter of Aesthetics" by Lisa Ho King Li

CONFLICT IN A STORY “A MATTER OF AESTHETICS”BY LISA HO KING LI
The short story, A Matter of Aesthetics’ has a combination of three conflicts. Those are the conflict within oneself, conflict with the family members and also the conflict with the society.
In this short story, the main character, Anna has a conflict within herself where she was decided to marry a dentist when she grows up. She makes the decision to marry a dentist because she was very attracted to a dentist who helped her mother to make a set of new teeth after she was kicked by her father. A dentist spoke fatherly and softly to Anna and her mother. Anna feels she was desperately fallen in love with the kindness of the dentist which comes with beauty of the teeth. Her false assumption eventually lead to obsession to look for a husband who is also a dentist with good set of teeth. This is stated in paragraph 1 line 1, “When she was nine, she decided that she would never marry anyone but a dentist who had good teeth…” and in paragraph 19 line 3 until 8, “The dentist had spoken to her in fatherly manner…”.Besides that, she has a conflict where she hated her father very much because her father are not responsible and always kicked her mother in front of her. Her father always beat and almost killed her mother and deserted her and her mother after she has made a new set of teeth.
Anna is also in conflict with herself when she knows that her husband, Dr Lum is actually having a macabre hobby which is collecting a shrunken human heads. Then she realized that her husband was appreciating an epicurean tastes and beauty of a shrunken human heads just like her who likes the beauty of the teeth. This statement is stated in paragraph 25 line 1, “Dr Lum had a macabre hobby. He too, was a man of epicurean tastes and beauty…”
The second conflicts in the story A Matter of Aesthetics’ are the conflict between Anna and the society. Anna has a problem when she feels uncomfortable and hated her friends at school. This is shows that she is a lonely girl and didn’t have many friends because she doesn’t like to mingle around with her friends. Besides, her friends always make fun of her when they know that she wish to marry a dentist. She only has one friend who visited her after her husband’s death. This is stated in paragraph 13 line 3 to 4, “ And she saw a bits of food particles stuck between yellowish teeth…….and she hated them…” and also in paragraph 13 line 8, “And she hated them with the same intensity she had hated her father…”. This is also can be seen in paragraph 11 line 1, “Ha! ha! ha! Here comes the bride. Anna wants to marry a dentist…”
Other than that, Anna is considered has a conflict with the society when she turns down the suitor’s proposal for three times just because she wants to find a dentist as a husband. This is shows that she couldn’t accept other people to be a part of her life except a dentist that she admired most. This statement are proven in paragraph 22 line1 until 5, “ Anna was proposed to three times by suitors who were not a dentist and all three times she had turned down their fragile offers…”
The last conflicts from a story, A Matter of Aesthetics’ by Lisa Ho King Li are the conflict between Anna and her family members. Anna was the only daughter in the family and she doesn’t have any siblings. She has a conflict with her father who is not a responsible father. She felt angry and she hated her father so much because her father always bit and almost killed her mother. Besides, her father never cared about both of them and that’s why she became very choosy and only chooses a dentist as a husband. This is because she thought that a dentist is always being kind to other people like to her and her mother as stated in paragraph 18 line 2, “He had been kind, and he offered to save whatever teeth left…” and in paragraph 20 line 3, “In the brilliant whiteness and symmetrical evenness of those teeth, she saw grace, purity and refinement…”.