27 pages • 54 minutes read
Chinua AchebeCivil Peace
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1971A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
Achebe narrates the story from a third-person limited perspective focused on Jonathan Iwegbu, a victim of the civil war. How might the story be different if the same events were narrated from a different perspective?
Achebe wrote both fiction and nonfiction. What is gained or lost by exploring the experiences of individuals after the civil war in a short story rather than an essay?
How does Achebe portray the distribution of power and wealth in his story?
Describe Jonathan’s attitude toward “Happy Survival.” What does it reveal about his character and belief system?
Describe the religion and ideology behind this proverb: “Nothing puzzles God.”
How does Achebe use language to show the social divisions in Nigerian society? Consider dialogue, dialect, proverbs, and figurative language.
One of the main concerns of Achebe’s writing is the destabilizing effects of colonization and Eurocentric values on Africa. How does “Civil Peace” reflect this concern?
What does the reader learn about Jonathan from the following passage:
“To God who made me; if you come inside and find one hundred pounds, take it and shoot me and shoot my wife and children. I swear to God. The only money I have in this life is this twenty-pounds egg-rasher they gave me today” (87).
What social commentary is the thief making when he makes the statement:
“We no be bad tief. We no like for make trouble. Trouble done finish. War done finish and all the katakata wey de for inside. No Civil War again. This time na Civil Peace. No be so?” (87).
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