In the novel, Running on Empty by Don Aker, there are many conflicts that the protagonist, Ethan Palmer faces. An obstacle that he faces is when Ethan drove his father's Volvo and clipped the front fender onto the corner of the garage door because of a 20 dollar bet with Seth, one of Ethan’s friends. Afterwards, his dad forces him to pay for the damages of the car fender, pay for the repair of the garage door, and losing driving privileges to teach his son life lessons. In the novel, Ethan says the repair costs was almost five thousand dollars plus tax and his conflict is that he has the money for the repair, but “what Ethan hadn’t anticipated was having to empty his entire bank account to pay for those goddamn repairs”-pg 17. He was saving