Nene's
emotional frame of reference is complex in her letter to Okeke. There is a sense of sadness to
it in that she readily acknowledges that the relationship between she and her father in law
will, to a great extent, be ruptured. Yet, I think that Nene's hope at the end of her letter to
Okeke is fairly powerful in that it is a desire to seek resolution without sacrifice to her own
sense of dignity. The letter speaks to the idea that she is a mother who wishes the best for
her children, boys who wish to know their grandfather. She does not let her own sense of
dignity and pride impact their own connection. In her statement about how she "will remain
in Lagos," there is a sadness, but a sense of the resolute present. She had been shown in
the story as one who will not be defined by setback and adversity, but actually rise above it.
She also does not show herself to be a woman that wishes to break the bond between her husband
and his father. She clearly states that the three of them in terms of the father and the two
sons wish to visit Okeke. The hope present is that she will not deny or repudiate this in the
same way that Okeke's demeanor has done in terms of his son's and Nene's marriage. It is in this
where hope is evident, that moral ascendancy and transcendency is evident in her actions, the
actions of a young person. It is in this that we see Okeke's "resolution he had built up
over so many years falling in." It is here where there is hope and where there is
redemption at the end of her letter.
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