Literary elements often play a major 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 depicts meaning is 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 Event at Owl Creek Bridge,” where the main character Farquhar struggles with the idea of ​​escaping impending death. Within the scope of the short stories "Happy Endings" and "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge", the literary element of the conflict between person and self with some of the main characters creates the theme. In “Happy Endings,” Mary’s inner conflict creates meaning. An example of this in the text is when Atwood says, “Mary falls in love with John, but John does not love Mary” (Atwood 1). This excerpt is an explanation of his conflict with John. Given that she is deeply in love with John, even though John has little to no feelings for her. An important part of this sentence in the story is when Atwood writes, “John does not love Mary” (1). This sentence indicates what produces Mary's inner conflict. Following the idea of ​​the first quote, another key point in the story is: “Inside John, she thinks, there is another John, who is much kinder” (1). One word that stands out in the sentence above is the word “Inside” (1). This shows that what Mary is in conflict with is internal, making it her inner conflict. What is remarkable about these quotes from the novel is that they evoke the person of Marie in relation to the personal conflict. Another excerpt from "Happy...... middle of paper ......ge", in In this particular situation, the main character Farquhar has a person versus self conflict. The explanation for his struggles is that he is killed for his crimes during the civil war, he longs to escape his execution, flee into the woods and return to his family. In the end, Farquhar is hanged and fantasizes about escaping, even though he was hanged. Therefore, the element of conflict between the person and the self plays an important role in the production of meaning in the duration of the plot. Although many literary elements play a key role in the short stories “Happy Endings” and “An Occurrence At Owl Creek”. , the element of person versus self-conflict demarcates the meaning in the duration of the story. Authors who write and describe the inner conflict of the main characters in the story, in different quotes and descriptions of the character, represent this..