Some African writers like Chinua Achebe, Bessie Head and Ngugi Wa Thiong’o have portrayed in their writings the situation of their countries and also have been responsible for some of the changes in them. The contrast between power and non-action has been one of the topics reflected in their stories. It has been mainly represented in the different characters that appear, hence the analysis of their short stories Girls at War, The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses and A Meeting in the Dark respectively for the development of this essay. In the short story Girls at War it is not casual the fact that Achebe chooses and introduced at the very beginning of the story a character belonging to a very high class in order to illustrate the encounter of the two main characters: Reginald Nwankwo, Ministry of Justice of the new created state of Iboland and Gladys. In doing that, our writer is presenting us his intention of telling the story throughout the eyes of the man in order to know how he perceives the world and the changes in his country. Later in the story, in the third encounter, we get to know the name of the feminine character since in the two previous encounters she appears as ‘the girl’. Although Girls at War deals with the story of this woman, showing a depiction of her life throughout three different parts of it, that is to say, before, during and after the war, the author did not consider her an important element at the beginning of the story to the point that he did not give us her name. Chinua Achebe wanted to tell us the story from the perspective of power, that is to say, from the eyes of Nwankwo and not from the perspective of the poor militia girl. Achebe’s short story is a story of common people and their reactions during war but it is not a war of soldiers fighting on the front line but a war as ordinary or powerless people live it. It is within this group or ordinary people where Gladys can be found as shown in her description in the second encounter: ‘She was a beautiful girl in a breasty blue jersey, khaki jeans, and canvas shoes with the new-style hair plait which gave a girl a defiant look and which they called- for reasons or their own- “air force base”’ (p. 156). It is the description of a quite ordinary girl dressed like a soldier. She believes in what she does and she is very strict because she wants to do her job perfectly. She has not been corrupted yet. Nevertheless, by the end of the story it is noticeable that Gladys has suffered some changes as seen in Nwankwo’s words: ‘Do you remember that girl in khaki jeans who searched me without mercy at the checkpoint? That is the girl I want you to become again. Do you remember her? No wig. I don’t even think she had any earrings’ (p. 162). She is looking quite artificial with very expensive clothes. This together with the drunken Red Cross man commentary about women tumbling into bed for money at the lieutenant colonel’s party leads us to think that Gladys is a prostitute. This fact shows that war is a way for powerful people of getting profit from the miseries and problems or people. If our woman is living with someone who is taking benefit of the world maybe our woman is a prostitute. During that time the only way of surviving for a young lady in this upset atmosphere of war was by means or prostitution, so in that sense she has been corrupted by society. She is not anymore the girl at war that appeared at the very beginning. The war changes all the characters in the story and so does with Reginald Nwankwo too. Our character can be said to be a corruptor but he has also been corrupted by the situation itself. In the last of the encounters he takes Gladys from the street. He did not pick her up because he wanted to help her but because he wanted to have sexual intercourse with her. He could have chosen one of the old ladies in the street but he preferred the younger one. As stated above he is getting profit of the situation of Gladys. Moreover, he is taking food he got because of his political position to his people. While others have no chance of having food he is making use of the power that his position of Ministry of Justice gives him to have some food for his family. In the end, our protagonists are not anymore