I would want to argue that the major conflict we see in
this story is an internal conflict based in the character of Kenny, our narrator, who we
gradually see being forced to grow up through the experiences that he has, especially
when he and his family go to Birmingham and experience a violent racial attack. This
initially greatly shocks Kenny, and even when he and his family return to his home it is
clear it has greatly impacted him, making him withdrawn and isolated from others.
However, what resolves this internal conflict which features Kenny's inability to accept
and process what happens is the conversation that he has with Byron regarding fairness
and justice. Note what Byron says to him:
"Kenny, things ain't ever going to be fair. How's
it fair that two grown men could hate Negreos so much that they'd kill some kids just to
stop them from going to school? How's it fair that even though the cops down there might
know who did it nothing will probably ever happen to those men? It ain't. But you just
gotta understand that that's the way it is and keep on
steppin'."
Kenny thus
realises that unfairness is a part of life, and our only response to this central truth
is to accept it and not to let it interfere in our own lives as much as possible. We
cannnot allow the unfairness of life to result in our own inaction and detachment from
it. The only response, as Byron says, is to "keep on steppin'" regardless. Thus we see
that by the end of the novel this central internal conflict within Kenny as he struggles
to process the unfairness of life is resolved, as is symbolised by the way he starts to
care about things again, such as getting his dinosaurs back from
Rufus.
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