The primary conflicts in Chinua Achebe's short story "Marriage Is a Private Affair" deal with the wishes of the individual against the mores of the greater society. They are also generational between father and son. Major conflict erupts between Nnaemeka, a young Nigerian man, and his father, Okeke. Nnaemeka wants to marry a girl who is not part of his ethnic group. Nnaemeka is from the Ibo tribe, and his fiancé, Nene, is an Ibibio woman.
In Nnaemeka's small village at the time, the idea of an Ibo man marrying out of his tribe is unheard of. Okeke does not stand for it, and he calls such a marriage "Satan's work." He basically disowns his son, refusing to see him and his new wife. It is a classic conflict between generations, with the younger generation going in a different direction than their parents. As time goes by, the couple have two young sons, and Nene writes Okeke a letter imploring him to give up the complaint against his son and come to visit his grandsons. Another related conflict involves Nene and the Ibo women of Lagos, who treat her as an outsider.
Both of these conflicts are eventually resolved. The Ibo women of Lagos "grudgingly" begin to accept Nene, admitting "that she kept her home much better than most of them." Okeke is also softened. The end of the story suggests that he will forgive his son and go visit Nnaemeka and his family. On the night after he receives the letter from Nene, he can think of nothing but the two boys, and he fears "that he might die without making it up to them."
Monday, September 15, 2014
This story bursts with conflicts among people and ideas. What are at least two of these conflicts? Does the story resolve them? If so, how?
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