Lane A. Dean Jr. is one of the two main characters of the short story "Good People" by David Foster Wallace. He is sitting still with his girlfriend Sheri, the other main character, on a picnic table at a park by the side of a lake.
The external conflict for Lane is the tension between him and his girlfriend. There is a problem that goes beyond lack of communication. He knows he is not in love with her and she seems to be waiting for him to say something. We are presented with his own opinions and thoughts only, so we don't know what she thinks. By sitting still on the picnic table, they seem to be in an unhappy, awkward situation, and at least from Lane's perspective, things are not alright between them.
The fact that Lane is not in love with Sheri and is not able to tell her, causes internal conflict on him. He wants to be honest, and to be a good person, despite no being serious with his faith. He compares himself with her, whom he considers mature and serious. He also thinks she is a person who knows what she wants. On the other hand, he is not sure he is good anymore and seems to be struggling with some aspects of his own identity (his faith, for example). He doesn't want to lie to her or to himself, and in the end realizes he wants to find courage instead of love. Courage to tell his girlfriend he doesn't love her.
Internal conflict is the situation when a character struggles with his/her own thoughts, desires or beliefs. Whereas external conflict is a conflict against something or someone on whom the character doesn't have any control.
Lane A. Dean Jr. is the most prominent character of the story "Good People". The story narrates as follows:
Dean was sitting on a bench with his girl beside a lake to discuss something with his girl. But the conversation had no words. Both of them were quiet.
Dean was in dilemma as he knew he doesn't loves his girl but on the other hand she wants him to confess his love to her. This caused him an external conflict. He has to deal with the belief of his girl who thinks he loves her.
Besides this, he wants to be honest and tell her that he doesn't loves her but was lacking confidence. She thinks him to be a mature and loyal person and the one she desired to be her man. The feeling of not being in love with his girl and not able to tell her the truth caused internal conflict on him.
He need courage to tell her that the thoughts she has about him were false and he is not sure about the relationship and wants to quit.
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