Nnaemeka's Marriage

Do you think marriage should be based on love or tradition? Most Americans today would answer love. The story “Marriage is a private affair”, by Chinua Achebe, is a story about a man, named Nnaemeka, who goes against the tradition of an arranged marriage by his father and marries for love. In the text people describe Nnaemeka’s non traditional marriage has NEVER before been heard of. In this essay I will discuss the following: The irony of the title “Marriage is a private affair” and the two themes, Right tradition v.s. Personal freedom and love conquers all. The title “Marriage is a private affair” is an example of verbal irony. Based on the title you would most likely infer that marriage would be described as a private concern. However, throughout the story the author reveals Nnaemeka’s marriage as a very public event. The quote from the text, “The story [meaning news of Nnaemeka’s marriage] eventually got to the little village of Ibo country…”(page 1333) is an example of how publicly portrayed Nnaemeka's marriage really was. Throughout the story the author uses irony in other situations. For an example, he uses situational irony when Nnaemeka tell his father, “Nene Atang from Calabor. She is the only girl I can marry” (page 1332) but instead
After hearing the news from Nnaemeka that he is not marrying the wife of his choosing Okeke disowned his own son. The author says, “By a tremendous effort of the will he had succeeded in pushing his son to the back of his mind.” (page 1334). However all that animosity changed when he heard news of having grandchildren. The author describes Okeke’s reaction as, “The old man at once felt the resolution he had built up over so many years falling in”(page 1334). The love of family surmounted the feelings of antipathy and hostility that Okeke had built up over the years. Love really does conquer