Similarities Between Everyday Use And Okeke

Many families have many traditions that pass through generations and while some are kept, others are lost throughout each generation. Traditions are more important to older generations rather than the newer ones. That is the theme of the stories – tradition. The narrator in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” and Okeke in Chinua Achebe’s “Marriage is a Private Affair” see the importance in their family’s tradition and when their children didn’t appreciate their traditions, they disowned them. Both the narrator and Okeke see the importance of their family’s traditions. When Dee/Wangero, the narrator’s daughter, comes to visit and points out all the traditional pieces with a sudden appreciation for them, the narrator is reminded of the history and
In the story of “Everyday Use,” Wangero makes a commotion about the quilts that she wants because of a sudden false appreciation for it, as it is artistic and in style with the times and with her discovering her roots. When Wangero continues to insist as she is going to hang them up and take care of them, the narrator “snatched the quilts out of Miss Wangero's hands and dumped them into Maggie's lap,” which shows that the narrator is not going to be bullied out of her historical family quilts (Walker 5). The child, Wangero, believes that her mother does not understand their heritage like her knew found appreciation for it. That causes the narrator to reply back “What don't I understand?” which shows that the narrator knows more than her new generation child (Walker 5). That remark of the narrator causes the Miss Wangero to storm off and for the narrator to disown her. The newer generation, which Miss Wangero is a part of, seems to believe that they know more about their roots and heritage, rather than the older generation who actually grew up with those traditional values and beliefs. Likewise, Okeke completely disowns his son when he hears of his love marriage to a non-Ibo teacher. From that encounter, “the father scarcely spoke to his son” (Achebe 3). His son ends of marrying the woman he disapproved of, tainting their traditional values. Okeke did not associate with his son Nnaemeka for “eight years” (Achebe 5). Nnaemeka did not believe in his father’s traditions, thus being part of the modern generation to marry for love, rather than having their marriage arranged. Both of the parents in the story did not let their child taint their traditional values, thus disowning