Dangling Man is a journal written by the main character Joseph under a first-person point of view. It is a record of Joseph’s changes in personality and struggles in himself after he resigns from his work place and decides to join the army. Because the story focuses on Joseph’s interpersonal thoughts, the conflict in this journal is an internal conflict of Joseph (original self) vs. Joseph who faces a disappointing world; it is a struggle of difference between his self-determination and his desired way of life and the reality he faces. This gap between Joseph’s ideal social values and solution to facing problems and the unsatisfying reality causes him to form an autonomous character independent from his former self. The autonomous-Joseph isolates himself by breaking away from society and reality, causing him to build untenable relationships with others due to his failure to control his emotions and not express his dissatisfaction whenever he faces problems that differ from his pursuits. For example, on March 26, Joseph had an emotional explosion toward Vanaker, Joseph’s alcoholic neighbor who always make inconsiderate actions. Joseph’s burst of madness causes him to shout, exclaim, and speak out all sorts of impolite and insulting words toward Vanaker’s actions, making Joseph seem crazy in front of everyone else. These emotional outbreaks make Joseph appear uncommunicable to others as he loses control of his emotions and reaches a state of mind with only madness and not a thought of care for the situation or feeling of others. As Joseph withdraws more inward and loses control of his emotions and his communication with the world, the surrounding people are unable to face him as they used to and have no ways to bring him out of the dualism Joseph has put himself in.

Told from a first person’s point of view, the journal helps readers understand more about the situation and have a clearer idea about Joseph’s personal character traits from his way of speaking and opinions. As Joseph forms an internal conflict, his condition is likened to dangling on a cliff of the world. The things he used to consider as most precious to him is like the part of Joseph remained on top of the cliff, staying in his heart as beautiful memories, but without bringing him any sort of happiness after he resigned and started a new way of living. His new life after he resigns and starts to have a different personality that causes him to treat people around him with horrible emotional management represented him having his body mostly under the cliff representing. With Joseph struggling to make a choice between his life before and after, he is stuck in a situation like dangling on a cliff. At the beginning of the book, we are informed that although Joseph and his wife Iva only live upon the money from Iva’s job, he rejects all financial aid from his brother except for clothing and other unimportant help. Based on this evidence, we can make an inference that Joseph’s type of pride doesn’t allow him to accept anything from people other than the basics of living as it makes him feel like a poor clown who didn’t make out anything out of what he has pursued throughout the years he has lived. Other than Joseph’s pride, we can also infer that he struggles with fitting in and understanding others from the same social context. This is suggested through his struggles with still wanting others to remember his existence in the community even though he may not be in the same social and comfort zone with others or is unable to relate to other’s conditions. His inability to relate makes him frustrated as no one can understand his mood and feelings. The more frustrated Joseph gets, the farther away he tries to separate himself away from the reality and people around him to put himself into the ideal world he has in his mind. This separation causes a gap to form between Joseph and others such as Iva, his friends who he used to value, and his family members. As a result of his isolation from society, he has a lot of arguments with Iva about his way of communicating with other, an explosion to his friends’ failure to acknowledge him when they meet coincidentally, and estrangement from his brother’s family.