Literary elements on numerous occasions play a huge role in the meaning of a story. Two distinct cases are found in the short stories "Happy Endings" and "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge". In these particular cases the literary element that describes the meaning is the internal conflict. In “Happy Endings” the conflict lies in the character Mary who is in love with John, but he is not in love with her. A similar circumstance is found in the story "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge", where the main character Farquhar struggles with the idea of ​​escaping impending death. In the stories “Happy Endings” and “An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge” the literary element of person versus personal conflict with some of the main characters creates the theme. In “Happy Endings,” Mary's internal conflict fabricates meaning. An example of this in the text is when Atwood narrates, “Mary falls in love with John, but John does not love Mary” (Atwood 1). This excerpt is an explanation of her conflict with John. Being that she is deeply in love with John, even though John has little to no feelings for her. A significant part of this line in the story is when Atwood writes, “John does not love Mary” (1). This phrase indicates what produces Mary's internal conflict. Following the idea of ​​the first quote, another key point of the story is: “Inside John, think, there is another John, who is much kinder” (1). One word in the sentence above that stands out is the word “Inside” (1). This describes that what Mary is in conflict with is within, thus making it her internal conflict. The most important thing about these quotes from the novel is that they convey Mary's persona with respect to her conflict with herself. Equally worthy of attention is another excerpt from "Happy...... middle of paper ......ge", in In this particular situation, the main character Farquhar possesses a person against a personal conflict. The explanation for his difficulties is because he is killed for his crimes during the civil war, he wishes to escape his execution, escape into the woods and return to his family. Farquhar is eventually hanged and fantasizes about his escape, even though he has been hanged. Therefore, the element of person versus personal conflict plays an important role in producing meaning in the duration of the plot. However, many literary elements play a key role in the short stories "Happy Endings" and "An Occurrence At Owl Creek". , the person element versus personal conflict outlines meaning throughout the story. The author's writing and description of the internal conflict of the main characters in the story, in several quotes and character descriptions, represent this.