Facing Reality

4 Pages 955 Words

Facing Reality
Have you ever thought about all the pressure family brings upon you? How about the days when you decide to take a risk, defy the odds, and stand up for what you believe is right? In the stories, “ A & P”, by John Updike and “Marriage Is A Private Affair”, by Chinua Achebe, Sammy and Nnaemeka both face these obstacles. They both desire to make a change and have other see their own point of views.
In “Marriage Is A Private Affair”, Achebe’s character, Nnaemeka, defies his father’s beliefs. Nnaemeka’s father, Okeke, has set up his son to be married to a local Ibo girl. Okeke has a very strong stance on people from Ibo marrying one another. Nnaemeka has found someone who he loves, but the dilemma between this is she is not an Ibo woman. He has to face his father and tell him that the woman he is choosing to marry is not a local. At first Nnaemeka is hesitant to tell his father. But after much persistence from his fiancé, he went to tell him face to face other then just a letter.
As Nnaemeka told his father what he had chosen, Okeke face was in disbelief. As stated in the story, “ His father’s silence was infinitely more menacing than a flood of threatening speech.” He couldn’t except that his own son would disgrace the family in such a manor. For about eight years after that, Okeke still had not talked to his son. He didn’t want any part to Nnaemeka and Nene, Nnaemeka’s wife.
This story represents how a young man stood up to his father. Nnaemeka knew that his father would never accept the fact that he married someone other then an Ibo woman. He wanted to make his father realize that not all marriages had to be within the tribe. Nnaemeka took a major risk in loosing a relationship with his father. The family pressures of Nnaemeka marrying an Ibo woman didn’t alter the fact that he wanted to marry someone he cared for and loved. Although in the Ibo tribe marriage wasn�...