For your essay, compare and contrast the ways the two characters view their difficulties and the ways
they cope with them. In your analysis, you can include incidents or moments from the stories other than
those two passages mentioned in the previous paragraph, the ones where the characters tell us what they
think is best to do in the face of trouble. For instance, you could discuss whether the character's behavior
throughout the story actually matches up with what he or she says is best to do in the face of trouble. As
you make your case, be sure to use specifics from the stories to support your ideas.
The stories by Achebe and Smith both have main characters who find themselves in difficult
circumstances.
For the main character in "Civil Peace," his difficulties are caused by the dangers and unstable
circumstances of his country. For the main character in "The Waiter's Wife," her difficulties are caused by
cultural displacement and the clash of modern and traditional cultures. However, in both stories, the
characters make declarations near the ends of the stories in which they explain how they view their
difficulties and how they believe they can best cope with them (these declarations were discussed in the
PowerPoint lesson for each
Sample Solution