In the stories, “Civil Peace”, by Chinua Achebe, and “Pigeons at Daybreak”, by Anita Desai, the authors use characterization to show the outcome of what happens when you accept and don’t accept what cannot change. A lucky man, Jonathan Iwegbu, is living with his family in Africa after surviving the Nigerian Civil war. His family includes his wife Maria Iwegbu, and three children who all survived through the war also. Although his family surviving brings him great happiness, it was a miracle that he managed to hold on to his old bicycle. The whole family tries really hard to rebuild their lives by selling mangos, breakfast cakes, and even by opening a palm-wine bar for the soldiers. By accepting what cannot change, Jon does what he can to get his family back together like it was before the war. Jonathan's family and others were very poor after the war. They stood in the egg-rasher line and Jon, “...had twenty pounds counted into his palms as ex-gratia award for the rebel money he had turned in. It was like Christmas for him and many others like him when the payments began” (Achebe 30). Although these poor families weren’t getting much money, Jonathan was…show more content… Basu, in “Pigeons at Daybreak,” refuses to accept what cannot be changed. Mr. Basu, husband to Otima Basu, has fallen very “ill” and relies on his wife to care for him. She must read for him, make food for him, get his medicine for him, and he treats her very badly. Mr. Basu has given up on his life and doesn’t try to fix what he had become. He states how his wife had been “hauling him up and propping him upright by their shoulders… he tried to think when he had last attempted or achieved what now seemed a tortuous struggle…”(Desai 225). Mr. Basu’s life has become what he made it by not accepting his illness and trying to stabilize it. Instead he puts all his problems on his wife for her to deal with them. When looking at these diverse actions, Mr. Basu acts very differently than Jonathan