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Ordinary People is the story of both Conrad and Calvin Jarrett. Because the novel focuseson two contrastive people, there are several conflicts throughout the novel that are specificto those unmarrieds. The central question in Conrads story is whether he will be satisfactory torecover after his suicide attempt. As Dr. Berger fates out, half the people who attemptsuicide will try to do it again at some point in their lives. The inclusion of Karens suicidetowards the end of the novel is a way of reminding the reader that Conrad may not haverecovered completely even when he seems to be getting better after all, Karen seemed tobe doing well when Conrad met her for a Coke earlier in the novel.The main question in Calvins story is whether he and Beth will be able to make amends.Their conflict is based essentially in a communication problem Calvin believes that theway to heal the wounds of the past is to blether through them and discuss feelings, whileBeth only wants to move on from the past. She dislikes Calvins attitude and hisinsistence on worrying about his son. The conflict between the two parents is unconquerable atthe end of the novel when Beth leaves.Structurally, the novel does two things. First, it alternates back and forth between thestories of Calvin and Conrad, with each chapter shedding some new light on theirindividual struggles and conflicts. This alternating style gives the novel a kind ofmirror-image structure just as Conrad gets better over the course of the novel until he isreally healed, the wedding party between Calvin and Beth spirals downward until it fails.The second structural tactic of the novel is that it begins in a world that is already in someway ruined file has already died, and Conrad has already tried to commit suicide evenbefore the first chapter opens. On the one hand, this indicates that the book is a novelabout heal and rebuilding a ruined world, rather than about how that world got ruinedin the first place. This struct ure, however, also gives the book a reverse coming-of-agefeel. There are countless childrens books about boys who begin the novel as innocentkids and after a series of life experiences end the novel as slightly more(prenominal) mature and wiseryoung adults (Huckleberry Finn and The Catcher in the Rye are examples.) OrdinaryPeople tells a coming-of-age story backwards. Conrad has already been through hismoment of great experience--the wipeout of Buck--and the novel is really the story of how