In “Civil Peace” Jonathan Iwegbu tries to explain to himself the complexities of life by repeating this statement four times.  Indeed, everything puzzles him, but if God understands, then one can continue to give life in a meaningful way and be grateful for what one has. The first three times he says this make references to miracles which occur after the Civil War and benefit the family, such as finding their bike, keeping their home, and collecting the egg-rasher. Additionally, this phrase refers to the gains, losses, and value of life. Combined with the basic sentence pattern of subject, verb, and direct object, the unsophisticated vocabulary connotes a straightforward attitude. In order to further contribute to the statement’s simplicity, the exclusion of adjectives and adverbs creates a lack of description, possibly referring to the speaker’s effort to forget the Civil War. Finally, since the main character and his family have recently experienced a life-changing tragedy, the statement’s straightforwardness stresses their fight for survival. Perhaps the repetition of the statement also indicates irony, not on the part of the character but the author, for if the atrocities of this Biafran war do not puzzle God, that must mean there is a place in the universe, a meaning for, this sort of meaningless violence