Civil Peace

“Civil Peace” Analysis Paper When trying to survive through the Nigerian Civil War, the key to happiness is to have faith and stay positive. To get through the bad situations, one must be optimistic and hope for the best. In the story Civil Peace by Chinua Achebe, the main character Jonathan Iwegbu uses this throughout the story. He faces a variety of obstacles like, dealing with thieves, poverty and losing family. Chinua teaches the reader that keeping an optimistic mindset will give you good outcomes. This also explains and gives a better understanding of Jonathan’s relationship with God. Chinua uses both examples of culture and characterization to create the overall message of the story which is man's power of positive thinking.
His positive outlook on things can be found throughout the story that also shows Jonathan's religion and beliefs, and how he uses that to be optimistic. Jonathan repeats the phrase a couple of times, “Nothing puzzles God.” Here we can find and analyze the way Achebe uses this to describe Jonathan's relationship and faith in God. He doesn't question God's powers to do great things and if he trusts in him he will earn great outcomes. Jonathan, along with his family have been through tough times and the author uses the idea of having faith in God to have hope and optimism. The character's mindset is surrounded by the positive side of things. He has already been through so much due to the wartimes and the faith he has in God allows him to move forward and focus on the present. Another quote found in the beginning of the story that represents religion and culture that the author used was when his family was mentioned, “He had come out of the war with five inestimable blessings-- his head, his wife Maria’s head and the heads of three out of their four children.” The
One example that shows this was whenever Jonathan says, “Of course the doors and windows were missing and five sheets off the roof. But what was that?” Here, the author uses his worn out house as an example to introduce one of the few times that Jonathan finds the positive in the negative. Maybe he doesn't have a luxurious house but, he has a roof over his head and the fact that it is still standing in the aftermath of the war makes him overwhelmingly happy and grateful. By using his house as an example of Jonathan's gratitude, Chinua uses this to give readers an understanding of how Jonathan can easily separate the positive from the negative: his house still standing is the positive and the war is the negative but, when he finds that it is still standing, he is nothing but happy. Readers should get from this story that one should be grateful for what they have and be positive. An additional quote included in the story was his reaction and response after his house had been surrounded by thieves and were demanding for money, “I count it as nothing, ‘he told sympathizers, his eyes on the rope he was tying.’ What is egg-rasher? Did I depend on it last week? Or is it greater than other things that went with the war? I say, let egg-rashee perish in the flames! Let it go where nothing else has gone.” Chinua