Everyone's future depends on their self-confidence and how positively they look at the events that happen in their life. This is represented through “Trying” by Suzanne Buffam and the novel Inside by Alix Ohlin. Both the speaker and Anne face internal conflicts; the speaker gains self-confidence, which helps her overcome her conflict and have a peaceful state of mind, while Anne loses self-confidence, which leads to her failure to overcome the conflict and loss of confidence . The speaker's reassuring tone shows his tranquility, in contrast to Anne's melancholy tone which shows her low self-esteem. Furthermore, the speaker's use of allusion shows her inner peace which is a result of gaining self-confidence, while Anne's use of diction shows the demolition of her self-esteem. Both the poem and the novel show the importance of having self-confidence; however, the speaker in the poem gains faith through her struggles, which leads to peace of mind, and the novel's character, Anne, loses faith, which results in the degradation of her self-esteem. Both the speaker and Anne struggle with an internal conflict; the speaker's confidence in herself helps her overcome her conflict, while Anne's loss of faith does not allow her to overcome her conflict. The speaker calls her husband “cooperative” (Buffam), but then says, “Yet sometimes I fear it's his fault. That he's either not trying hard enough, or he's trying too hard…” (Buffam). It is evident from this that the speaker's internal conflict is that she thinks too much about her problems and tries too hard to get pregnant. However, she gains self-confidence and understands her conflict as she says, “…Aristotle points out that it is exclusively the irrational that the wonderful…middle of paper…thinks has no dignity about. as she is unable to become the perfect daughter her parents expect her to be. She thinks negatively only because she loses self-confidence. Anne loses her self-esteem as she believes, “wholeheartedly in her lack” (Ohlin 19). This shows that Anne believes she deserves to be raped and that she is worthless. Anne loses her faith and consequently blames herself for the sexual assault. Anne's negative tone shows a degradation of her self-esteem. In contrast to the speaker who gains faith and achieves inner peace, Anne loses her self-confidence and ends up losing her self-esteem. Works Cited Buffam, Suzanne. "Trying." The irrationalist. Toronto: Anansi Press, 2010. 63-67. Print.Ohlin, Alix. In. Toronto: Anansi Press, 2012. Print.