Conflict for Writers

"We're told conflict is absolutely necessary to a story, but this book doesn't have any conflict."
The only reason I didn't fall off my chair is because I'd arrived late at the meeting and was propping up the back wall. I was late because I'd paused on my way up to the meeting room to look at some books on display and spent more time than I should have trying to decide which to buy i.e. I was conflicted.
A simple definition of conflict can be that it exists anytime there is a choice to be made. Black coffee or white? Another way I look at conflict is that it is being at odds.
Being at odds or conflicted is such an essential part of our existence we hardly give it a second glance most of the time. Yet it is such a significant part of being human that billions spend time and effort trying to cope with inner conflict via religion; which in turn causes more conflict.
Apparently some, perhaps many, only think of conflict as existing when great, obvious disagreements are occurring. A battle in a war is certainly an obvious example of conflict, but what about a two year old child looking at a knickknack her grandmother told her to not touch? Is the child's conflict really any less that what is going on during that war? It is less? Really? If you haven't one of your own borrow a two year old and then put something the child might really want to handle within easy reach and watch the conflict begin.

The object that caused the two year old such an internal battle may be something you could pass by and ignore with ease. Something that causes you no conflict whatsoever (unless it is in the wrong place and it hurts your brain to leave it there) Just because something isn't conflict to you doesn't mean there isn't conflict.
If you are going to be a writer it is a must to learn to recognize conflict even when, or especially when, it isn't a matter of being at odds with the subject for the writer.
Expecting me to pass up a bungee jumping experience is no cause for conflict at all. I'm not doing it. I think anyone who does is a flake of hay short of a bale. Expecting me to pass up a chance at a trail ride though the Great Smoky Mountains though would cause real conflict that would last indefinitely.
Okay, I lie; when seeing or hearing about bungee jumping I want to rush over and slap the participants in restraints for their own protection. Then I want to deliver a Power Point presentation about the damage they are doing to their joints with such a foolish activity. I don't though, but there is a time of struggle before I leave them to their fate.
To me the book under discussion has an enormous amount of conflict. Its conflict is, I will admit, somewhat subtle as compared to an Intergalactic war or a corporate melgomaniac trying to take over the biggest company in the country. However, any child or anyone who remembers being a child of the appropriate age will recognize the intense major conflict; which leads to other conflicts the child has to deal with. In short, the book the person felt lacked conflict is full of it; really chocked full of conflict of the most personal kind.
The name of the book that inspired this article? Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCapilla.
Because of Winn-Dixie will capture the interest of almost any kid because there isn't a kid out there who isn't dealing with some of the conflicts used in this story. The main and supporting conflicts are inherent to being a child and must be resolved in some fashion or the other if the child is to grow into an adult emotionally.