No one justifies because they are stupid or mean. They simply adopt the best approach they can imagine, based on their life experience. Neither justification nor problem solving are intrinsically good or bad. In fact, they are the same process, the main difference being how things eventually turn out. With the value of hindsight we can judge if the decisions made and actions taken were correct, but we cannot judge this as the effort is happening since none of us can see the future. So, no character or person can be certain whether their approach to an inequity will resolve it, not effect it, aggravate it, or create another inequity somewhere else that might be even more disturbing. All any of us can do -- all any of us EVER do is to make the decisions and take the actions our experience dictates as the best choices toward resolving our inequities.

Poor, Misguided Souls....

From this perspective, no character is bad, merely misguided. However, that is not the only perspective. If we step into the story and see a misguided character hurting others and us, from OUR life experience we decide that character must be stopped. Perhaps we argue with them, try to educate them, fight with or kill them. Maybe we write them off, severing our emotional ties and letting them spiral down into self-destruction because it is the only way to avoid them dragging us down.

Or, we might argue with them and find ourselves convinced of their point of view. We might try to educate them but learn something instead, fight with them and lose or be killed. We might be written off BY them or hold on to them and be dragged down as well, or drag them down with us.

The point is, both Main and Impact characters will feel they are right, believe in what they do, try to convince or thwart their counterpart and eventually prove to be correct or misguided.

Uniqueness Means Never Having to Say, "I Agree"

As we are driven by life experiences and since the experiences of each of us are unique, it is no wonder we come into conflict and confrontation over most everything we can think of. Stories are about the incompatibility of two life experiences and the best ways to resolve an inequity.

If a character stands by his life experience, then his approach served him well in other scenarios. Similarly, his counterpart has had different life experiences that served him equally well. For the current inequity in question, each life experience creates an approach incompatible with the other. In one context, each set of experiences was problem solving. In the current context, one will be seen to be problem solving, the other justification.

Tell Me A Message, Mommy....

This is the purpose and function of story: To show when something that has previously served you well one hundred percent of the time may not continue to hold true, or conversely, that it will always hold true. Either message is equally valid and depends on the author's personal bias on the issue which arbitrarily controls the slant of the message. Obviously, the outcome is not arbitrary to the author, but it is arbitrary to the story.

Several factors determine the audience's position in relationship to the correct and incorrect approaches to the problem. For example, whether the Main Character is change or steadfast, the outcome is success or failure, and the judgment is good or bad. These choices, and others, therefore control the impact of the story message on the audience.

Step By Step, Slowly We Argued....

So far we have only identified the difference between problem solving and justification in terms of the results they create. From this point of view, no character can tell for sure if he is on the right or the wrong track until he sees the results. This is fine for the characters, but an author will want to fashion a story so judgment is passed on each action and decision as it is taken. This is what forms the theme of the story and builds the emotional side of the story's argument event by event until (hopefully) the audience is buried under overwhelming evidence to support the author's message and positions.

Note the difference between the result-oriented rational argument and the more holistic passionate argument. In a story, the author hopes to convince the audience of his point of view both in terms of its reasonable nature and that it simply feels good as well. In this manner, the audience members adopt the author's bias on the issue and are moved to alter their behavior in their everyday life. In a broader sense, engaging in the story has added to the life experience of the audience and will affect their future choices for problem solving.

To carry an emotional appeal to an audience, a story must not only show the results of a method of problem solving, but must document the appropriateness of each step as well. To do this an author requires an understanding of the process of problem solving and its justification counterpart. Let us examine both.