Answer:
D) At the first sign of light as neighbors and others assembled to commiserate with him he was already strapping his five-gallon demijohn to his bicycle carrier and his wife, sweating in the open fire, was turning over akara balls in a wide clay bowl of boiling oil.
Explanation:
Chinua Achebe's short story "Civil Peace" tells the story of a man named Jonathan Iwegbu and his family during the Nigerian Civil War. It tells the ever optimistic attitude of Jonathan even at times of adversity.
At the first sign of light as neighbors and others assembled to commiserate with him he was already strapping his five-gallon demijohn to his bicycle carrier and his wife, sweating in the open fire, was turning over akara balls in a wide clay bowl of boiling oil.
The passage is from the end of the story after the robbers had taken his money from him. Even though he had lost his money, he still kept the same attitude of positivity, claiming that he "<em>counts it as nothing</em>". Instead of moping about his misfortune and staying sad, he went right back to doing what he had done before, with his wife doing her own ways to get extra money for the whole family. The attitude and approach of the whole family shows just how they are grateful for whatever they have been given, good or bad. This whole passage supports the theme that "one must persevere through hard times".
