Answer:
Conflict is important in a short story because without conflict there is no real story. The conflict is the start of the climax and there would be no resolution without it.
Explanation:
Neither, a metaphor would be like "I'm so hungry that I could probably eat an elephant," while a simile would have 'like' or 'as' to describe something.
Well, since your thesis statement is supposed to be the last sentence of the first paragraph, your introduction should precede it.