THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN TINY SMILING DADDY AND MARRIAGE IS A PRIVATE AFFAIR Although Tiny smiling daddy by Mary Gaitskill and Marriage is a private affair by Chinua Achebe seem very different stories with subjects that are worlds apart, the y both contain one main theme which is presented in different ways but it's still there, this theme is the relations between parents and their children and how they evolve with age.
Both stories open in an abrupt manner by presenting the problem with which the characters have to deal as the story continues to evolve. In the same time both authors present the one of the reasons that contributed to this conflict, this reason is the distance between the children and their parents. In both story the distance is one of the main factors but each author presented the distance in a different way. While in Achebe's story the distance is a physical one in Gaitskill's story it is an emotional one.
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English: Mary Gaitskill at the 2010 Brooklyn Book ...
Map of Nigeria's linguistic groups. Achebe's homel...In Achebe's story the distance becomes a factor when the son moves away from his village to go to the city where the customs were different and ultimately forgot about the thing that he learned in his village in order to adapt to the city life while his dad never changed.
However, in Gaitskill's story, the distance is an emotional one and mainly the main character Kitty creates it by her words and actions. Although when she was young she enjoyed family life, as she grew older she became more distant and ultimately against her owns family that was not condoning her behavior as a teenager. This distance eventually became physical when she moved away and that was the point at which both sides remained without trying to influence each other.
Another major factor that contributes to the...