What is the main conflict in the story, Face Time?

Because the short story is set during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, the majority of the narrative tension is derived from the conflict the narrator feels between her internal and external realities. Indeed, the only source of stimulation and connection that the narrator has throughout the short story is in her FaceTime conversations with her father and her two sisters. Although these interactions afford her a semblance of communication and human contact, the narrator feels that “An exhilarating exchange of ideas [is] not possible on screens or in this weird dystopia” (272, 273). The narrator is constantly on the phone. In spite of this almost obsessive pastime, she is convinced that the phone is an inadequate manner of conversing with others. This disparity between her internal experience and her external actions and behaviors therefore intensifies the narrative atmosphere and mobilizes the narrative’s amorphous plot line.