is not out of place--a plot is a problem.
Problem, in this connection, means conflict between opposing forces,
which gives the various events and situations of a story any dramatic
value they may possess. It follows that there are three basic
plot-themes, conflict between man and his environment or Nature,
conflict between man and man, and conflict between opposed traits in the
same man. It will be profitable for the writer to bear this in mind when
combing the world for his story.

In his essay on Victor Hugo's romances, Stevenson has touched upon the
emergence in fiction of the conflict between man and Nature. Briefly,
his argument is that in the works of such a one as Scott the world and
natural forces serve but as stage and stage devices for man and his
doings, while Hugo, particularly in "The Toilers of the Sea," draws
storm, cold, and heat as man's active enemies, almost endowing Nature
with a vindictive personality. Whatever the fact as to Hugo, it is
certain that to those who meet her face to face on sea and land Nature
is a somewhat stony-hearted mother, yielding food and shelter only at
the pistol-point of toil and struggle. To those of us who live in
cities, and whose concerns are mainly social, the constant struggle
of mankind against drought and flood, storm and cold, fire and famine
is obscured, but it is a living reality, nevertheless, and a rich
source of fiction that will get under the skin of the most pampered
apartment-dweller. The roots of our lives stretch far into the dim past,
when the unending struggle with natural forces was a bitter reality to
all, and adequate fictional presentment of the struggle with Nature
often proves to have an incisive appeal wanting in less fundamental
themes. Particularly, the writer may rely upon such a story's appealing
to the cultured and the uncultured mind alike, for the intrinsic human
importance of its theme is felt by all. The elements of the dramatic
problem presented are so simple that previous familiarity with them in
personal experience is not essential to their understanding.

A fine example of this theme given short story treatment is Bret Harte's
"The Outcasts of Poker Flat," while the portions of Stevenson's
"Kidnapped" dealing with David's experience on the Isle of Earraid and
his flight through the heather with Alan Breck find their dramatic
quality largely in the same theme. It is interesting to note that Harte,
however, does not emphasize the conf