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"Marriage Is A Private Affair" by Chinua Achebe. The teacher told us to write a short summary about the story and compare it to the world or our lives in some way.

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"Marriage Is A Private Affair" by Chinua Achebe. The teacher told us to write a short summary about the story and compare it to the world or our lives in some way.
"Marriage Is A Private Affair" by Chinua Achebe is told in the third person point of view. It takes place somewhere in Nigeria. There are 3 main characters in this story and about 10 in all, however they are merely mentioned.

Nene Atang is the woman that Nnaemeka chose to marry. She's from Calabar, she's a good housewife, a teacher in an all female school and she has a good Christian background. She is engaged to Nnaemeka when the story begins. Nnaemeka is the son of a man who is a member of the Ibo tribe. Nnaemeka used to be in that tribe until he grew up and moved away from Ibibio land. Basically the story begins with Nene talking to Nnaemeka about telling his father that they are engaged to be married. Nnaemeka told Nnaemeka it's a bad idea to tell him because he wouldn't approve of Nene because she isn't an Ibo and his father had never met her. Nene grew up in the city of Lagos, so she doesn't understand why traditions like arranged marriages and being a member of a tribe should matter in modern society. Nene told Nnaemeka that if his father loved him he would forgive him and learn to accept their marriage. Nene told Nnaemeka to just write him a letter telling him about their engagement instead of waiting 6 weeks for Nnaemeka's vacation to tell him when Nnaemeka would go to visit. Nnaemeka disagreed and waited. Before he went on vacation he thought about how he would sway his father into liking Nene. He also thought about the girl that his father had chosen for him; Ugoye Nweke, the daughter of Jacob, a neighbor of his back in Ibibio land. She was a tomboy who was dumb and used to beat up all the boys. She lived with a pastor and read the bible allot. When Nnaemeka went to visit his father he went with him to sit under his father's favorite tree, there they talked about Nene. Basically Nnaemeka said he didn't love Ugoye and his dad said no one expects you to love her. His dad said its tradition; if you break tradition then you are a disgracing your family.

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