A Dailylife of Survival Man
from Civil War ( Civil Peace )
Civil war is
one of short story who written by Chinua Achebe. The story began “when Jonathan Iwegbu counted himself
extra-ordinarily lucky..” (first line). it means he had successful become a man
who survive from the Nigerian Civil War. the sentence “extra-ordinarily lucky”
showed us that he really feel lucky, when a lot of his friends or neighbor died
in that war. and he felt joyness of his lucky, but there are five wishes or
“inestimable” blessings. The first blessing was his wife, Maria. He didn’t know
where she is. And then, his” three of four children”, it means that he has 4
children, but one of his children died (see the other paragraph “….his youngest
own son , were buried.”). and the last wishes is his old bicycle that give many
memories in his lifetime or “ a little history of his own”.
Then, he tried
to dig up the soil near the bushes, where his bicycle were buried in there and
he got it finally. I didn’t know, why did he bury his bicycle. But I thought,
he didn’t want to lose his “history” bicycle. Afterwards, he use a bicycle as a
taxi to search “small pile of Biafran Money”. He use it for his and family
requirement in dailylife. Bicycle as a taxi means that he use it as a common
vehicle , such as like bus or taxi, or in bahasa is “ojek sepeda” that you can
find it in the spot of Kota Tua. He determined the charge of his “taxi” is six
pounds per trip.
He got plenty
of money from that bicycle, and he thought “ a small fortune”. Right, because
of war, it didn’t mean the people have money for pay the charge. But I said it
again, he is a one lucky man in there. Then, he continued his journey to Enugu,
and found his completed families was still alive in their hometown. And he
thought it was such a “miracle”. And after that, his families tried to repair
his house because of the war. and it didn’t much to repaired. They tried to
find the money for it by “ his children picked a lot of mangos and sold it to
the soldier’s wives”.
One day, he
find “twenty pounds” from ‘ egg-rasher’. And it was like a christmas. The
Christmas , I thought for the Christian people is one of the special event in
December, where the people got many of giftes. And althought, it wasn’t that
special month, but his imagination and mind say that. And he feel lucky and
happy. Then, he placed into his palm and put it into his pocket. He had to save
it, because many people carelessness about his money, and it wouldn’t happen in
his life. I hope so.
`In one night,
he didn’t sleep well ( because he was easy to sleep or “a heavy sleeper” )
because many of people were died outside.then, he heard a man who knock his
door. He said “ who is knocking?”. He didn’t know who he/she is. And he afraid
when a man said “Na-tief man and him people” . Maria (his wife) tried to fire
the alarm and screamed such “ Police-o, Thieves-o…” . I thought, he tried to
called the police. But he felt in
despair over that thieves.
Than, he said he didn’t have plenty of money own. Just
said he only have twenty pounds ( he
just found it yesterday). Or they could to find it in around his house.
And if they successful, they can kill his family, include him. But there was no
one . the thieves gave his opportunity to give his money for them and then they
went out his house.
I didn’t know
it the end of this story. It made some confusing situation. Why are they acted
like that evening was never happen ? the narrator just said “ they said
“Nothing puzzles God”. And I thought it slight that he tried to forget that
awful night into his better life. And continuing their life.
In my
perspective, the narrator showed us the situation after the Nigerian war that ever happened in 1967-1970 in Nigeria .
he just make the description about the people’s mind in the war. and he take a
visual image of one of the survival victim in this war on Jonathan’s perspective.
The theme of
this story have three point, such as God, War, and Work ethic. The first point
is God. Why must I say God? Because Jonathan always said “Nothing puzzles God”,
it mean that he believes God is exist, and his perception said that God never
give us many puzzles ( mystery) for his life.
The second is
War. I know it, the story always tell about war. and the quotation in this
story said “…He had come out of the war..”. it means that he just successful
and escape from the Nigerian War.
Then, the last
is work ethic. I took that point because Jonathan tried hard for find the money
for his family. Not only him to do that, his childrens worked hard too for
search the money by sell the mangos.
The Defenselessness of A Thief towards Allah ( The Will of Allah )
Cerita ini
diawali dari dua orang pencuri yang berbeda karakternya. Pertama ada Sule. Dia
adalah orang yang sangat kental sekali dengan agamanya, dia selalu menyebut
nama Allah di setiap percakapannya. Kedua yaitu Dogo. Dia adalah temannya Sule
(partner of crime) . dia cenderung acuh dan tak setia kawan. Kenapa ia bisa
tidak setia kawan? Akan dijelaskan ceritanya di bawah ini.Sule ini orang ya
selalu pasrah terhadap keadaan, seperti
dalam contohnya ia saat itu sedang mencuri, tetapi ia ditangkap dan
pasrah saja tanpa melakukan perlawanan dan taktik untuk melarikan diri. Berbeda
halnya dengan Dogo, ia hanya di jelaskan sedikit dalam penggambaran
karakternya.
Di awali oleh
sule yang saat itu sedang melihat bulan dalam keheningan malam. Tiba-tiba si
sule mengatakan bahwa “rain tonight”. Tetapi, si Dogo itu tidak peduli dan
mengatakan hal yang mungkin taka da hubungannya dengan yang seharusnya menjadi
jawaban dari pernyataan nya.
Si
dogo mengatakan bahwa temannya, sule itu orangnya sangat religius. Bahkan si
Dogo mengatakan dengan nada sarkastik “'Society must be protected from
characters like you..”. ia mungkin benar-benar mengatakan hal itu, bahwa
temannya itu terus mengatakan nasihat-nasihat yang agamis. Dan si Sule itu
mengatakan bahwa orang yang seperti dia itu 'You and your type constitute a
threat to life and property and this court will always see to it that you get
your just deserts, according to the Law.” Ia menjelaskan bahwa sangat menjengkelkan dan katanya akan
mengancam semua orang.
Di
suatu malam, ia ingin mencuri suatu rumah yang tak berpenghuni, Sule dan Dogo
mencari cara untuk mencuri. Akhirnya, si Dogo memasuki rumah untuk mengambil
harta benda dan Sule hanya menunggu di luar. Seperti dalam tradisi di sana,
banyak orang yang emnyimpan hartanya itu dalam sebuah labu dan ia mengambilnya.
Ketika ia ingin mengambil isinya, ia terkejut, ia terkena gigitan ular. Benar,
di dalamnya ada kobra yang ternyata si pemilik rumahnya itu menjebak para
pencuri. Lalu, ia tutup lagi atas labunya dan langsung pergi dengan temannya.
Saat ia dan Sule di sungai, ia memberikan labu itu kepada Sule tanpa
memberitahukan apa isinya.
Sule berkata
bahwa ia pasrah terhadap takdir ia, ia mungkin menerka-nerka apa isinya, dan
menganggap bahwa ia “ the will of Allah (kehendak Allah)” itu ada. Dan terserah
apa takdir yang diberikan oleh Allah.
Tema
dalam The Will of Allah ini adalah Destiny. Karena , sikap sule yang hanya
terpasrahkan terhadap takdirnya. Tanpa melakukan hal apapun, karena ia yakin
semua telah tertulis dan tertakdirkan oleh Allah.
Dari kedua
cerita ini, menyatakan bahwa :
-
Mereka
menyimpan uang di dalam suatu kotak kayu ( Civil Peace ) dan labu ( The Will of
Allah ).
-
Di tempat
kejadian yang sama , Nigeria.
-
Akhir dari
dalam cerita yang mungkin masih terlalu ambigu, karena dalam “Civil Peace”
hanya melanjutkan hidupnya dan “The Will of Allah” yang memasrahkan keadaannya
terhadap Allah. Tak dilanjutkan, bagaimana keadaan dan situasi si tokoh
tersebut.
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