Lyra's Solution: Conflict ResolutionContext: Lyra and Will have travelled to the Land of the Dead to rescue Jopari, Will’s father. After crossing into the land of the dead they meet a Harpy who threatens to keep them there forever. To buy her freedom, Lyra tells her story to the enthralled ghost children and Harpies. Read the extract and then consider the transforming effect of Lyra’s story. Why are the harpies moved by it? - It is truthful
- They can empathise because it is an honest expression of human experience
- It provides a model or metaphor of alternative ways of being (i.e. not wickedness)
- Storytelling is a collective, social experience
Listen to the video extract in which Philip Pullman talks about the wisdom of stories. - Ask the students to think of other stories that they know
- What sorts of conflict lie at the heart of these stories?
- What solutions are proposed?
- What lessons can be learnt from stories?
Final Reflection Can we use what we learn from literature to help solve conflicts in real contexts? You might talk to the students about Scheherazade and the framing story for The Arabian Nights. ( See Susan Fletcher (2001) Shadow Spinner Collins or Robert Leeson (2002), My Sister Shahrazad Frances Lincoln). Alternatively you might look at one of the stories from the resources list and use as a model for story-writing (see list of ideas for extended topic work). | 
