American Arranged Marriage

Nearly half of the world’s marriages today are arranged. An arranged marriage is planned by the parents of the bride and groom, while the bride and groom themselves have little/no control in the matter. This type of marriage is more evident in the United States than you’d think, due to immigrants with arranged marriage as a part of their culture. Arranged marriages come with struggles such as defiance, assimilation, and preservation of culture. The main character of “Marriage is a Private Affair” by Chinua Achebe experienced some of these struggles.

Immigrants living in the United States face many obstacles when arranged marriage is part of their culture. They are more likely to clash with their parents over their opinions on arranged marriage.

In Chinua Achebe’s story “Marriage is a Private Affair, Nnaemeka has recently become engaged to a girl named Nene, who is not of Ibo descent. He is nervous to tell his father about it because of the fact that marriages are supposed to be arranged, according to his father anyway. When Nnaemeka receives a letter from his father saying that he as found a wife for him, Nnaemeka knows that he has to tell his father the truth. He tries to tell his father that marriage is different today, but he does not agree. To Nnaemeka’s dismay, his father is not happy with his decision because he believes in preserving the Ibo culture, so he decides to disown his son. As time passes, Nnaemeka and Nene get married. They send Nnaemeka’s father their wedding photo and he sends it back: “It amazes me that you could be so unfeeling as to send me your wedding picture… I decided just to cut off your wife and send it back to you because I have nothing to do with her” (Achebe 192). Time passes again, and the day comes where the old man discovers that he had grandchildren. He ultimately decides to let go of the past because he wants to know his