tribal customs. In Ibo culture, it is traditional for marriages to be arranged. Okeke has already found an Ibo wife for his son Nnaemeka, and he argues that love has nothing to do with a marriage match. Nnaemeka insists that his love for Nene is the preeminent consideration and that for this reason, he cannot marry anyone else.

This is a cultural impasse, but it becomes linked to moral arguments when Okeke is discussing the matter with his friends. One of them brings up a Bible verse about sons rising up against their fathers. This is a suggestion that Nnaemeka is in moral rebellion against Okeke.

In the New Testament of the Bible, Jesus says in Matthew 10:35, "I am come to set a man at variance against his father" (KJV). The way that Jesus phrases it in Luke 12:53 makes it more of a dilemma on both sides: "The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father" (KJV). We see how the tribe's strict adherence to the Bible creates this moral division between father and son.

The other major moral dilemma that divides Nnaemeka and Okeke is the fact that Nene is a teacher. In refusing to accept that a woman should be allowed to teach, Okeke refers to another passage from the Bible. He says that St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians says that women should keep silence. This is a reference to Paul's admonition in 1 Corinthians 14:34, which says: "Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience" (KJV). Paul here is referring to church services, but evidently the tribal Christian culture has expanded the interpretation to include any form of teaching, even at schools.