Living Dead In Dallas

Paige Boston
Living Dead In Dallas
by Charlaine Harris
pg 85

The main external conflict in this story is the dangerous maenad who attacked the primary character, Sookie, at the start of the story. Sookie, who has already been submerged into the supernatural world because of her relationships with vampires and a shapeshifter, unintentionally discovers that maenads exist when one scratches and injects poison into her back as a message to Eric, the vampire leader of the area. She is saved by a witch doctor, her boyfriend Bill, and Eric and his friends (all vampires). Since the no one knows why that maenad attacked her, everyone fears the worst and is constantly on the look out. Sookie is angry that no one has answers and resorts to yelling at everyone, which they tolerate since they view her as a weak, harmless human. There are many internal conflicts, which are usually expressed by the characters externally, mainly the large social stigma against vampires, who have recently been trying to "mainstream" into human society. Since Sookie is dating a vampire, and becomes involved in a vampire business deal using her telepathy, she is a seen as an outcast by many other humans, who already dislike her because she is telepathic. Since she has dealt with the negative options of others her entire life, Sookie simply ignores the people that are cruel to her, which I find admirable, since I know that people can be exceedingly judgmental of others based on their difference. I think that Sookie is brave, but at times a little oblivious to the world since she is used to tuning everything out so frequently.