Everyday Use and Marriage Is A Private Affair Literature Essay

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Everyday Use and Marriage Is A Private Affair
Culture can be described as social forms, material traits, and customary beliefs. Alice Walker’s short story titled Everyday Use was published in 1973 as part of his short story collection named In Love and Trouble. This short story describes how the differences of cultural ideas and age make a distinct relationship between a mother and her daughter named Dee. On the other hand, Chinua Achebe’s short story titled Marriage Is A Private Affair opens with a discussion between Nnaemeka (a young man) and Nene (a young woman). They are in love and want to marry as soon as possible. This story is basically about the relationship of a traditional father Okeke with his son Nnaemeka. Unlike his father, the son has a modern lifestyle and he takes things differently especially marriage. When we compare the parent-children relationship of Everyday Use and Marriage Is A Private Affair, we get to know that the conflicts between parents and children are mostly because of the generation gap. These conflicts can come to an end if parents and children are ready to communicate and when parents realize that not all of the decisions made by their kids are wrong.
It’s safe to say that parents-children conflicts occur differently, depending on how well the child and the parent get along in the first place. An example of this can be taken from Everyday Use. Here, the mother can be found having a distinct relationship with every daughter. She is closely connected with Maggie, and at the same time, she maintains a distance from Dee who is born and raised in a totally different generation. She was taught a lot of things about history, and this is what makes her different from her mother and Maggie. At a point, it is written that “sometimes I dream a dream in which Dee and I are suddenly brought together on a TV program of this sort” (Walker). This is said by the mother who keeps thinking about how her relationship with Dee can be changed to an extent. On the other hand, Marriage Is A Private Affair is a story in which a father wants his son to quit the idea of love marriage and follow the tradition of an arranged marriage. However, the conflict occurs when Nnaemeka finds his love in a beautiful girl named Nene. They are about...