Chinua Achebe's Civil Peace

“‘One has to be careful… there is something to the idea that the willingness to violate unimportant rules now can influence the willingness to violate important rules later on’” (Macmillan). In life, many choices we make are driven by our needs and wants. Our needs and wants decide whether or not we tell the truth. We spot this when our flight-or-fight response kicks in. Furthermore, we observe this when friendship, perfection and fame come to be more important than anything else.
Predominantly, the story “Civil Peace,” by Chinua Achebe, places the spotlight on a father and husband, Jonathan, who is resuming his life after the Nigerian Civil War. Jonathan and his family were aroused one night by bandits who demanded money. “‘... if you come

Her fantasy of going to the party comes true when her husband hands her two invitations. Nevertheless Madame Loisel declines on grounds that she has nothing to wear. After much negotiating with her husband, she purchases a dress and borrows a necklace from her wealthy friend, Madame Forestier, and goes to the party. She returns home to discover a horrifying truth: “‘The…the…necklace - it’s gone’” (Maupassant 377). With no luck of finding the necklace, Madame Loisel concluded to deceive Madame Forestier that the necklace needs repairs before she could return it. In reality, Madame Loisel was going to invest in a replacement necklace with money she did not have. She returned the mock necklace to Madame Forestier, who didn’t realize that it was a phony necklace. Madame Loisel put herself and her husband into debt and forced them to work multiple jobs. After ten years, the two crossed paths and Madame Forestier could not comprehend what she was told. “‘You bought a necklace to replace that other one? Mine was false. It was worth five hundred francs at the most!’” (Maupassant 380). Madame Loisel let her desire to be rich and please her friends get in the way of telling the truth, which taught her to always tell the

Amanda MacMillan wrote “Is It Ever Okay to Race With Someone Else’s Bib Number?” to showcase why bib fraud is so notorious. People switch bibs in order to get faster results. Some are injured or ill-prepared for the race. There is a multitude of reasons why bib fraud is so horrid, but among the biggest is skewing results. “A man who runs wearing a bib registered to his wife or his father, for example, may accidentally win an age group he doesn’t belong in, bumping out another runner who actually earned it” (MacMillan). Someone else deserved an award that a thief stole from him or her, and this is an even bigger issue when we are talking about qualifying for races like the Boston Marathon or the Olympic Time Trials. The desire for fame and fortune create the decision to lie about people’s true