This question is based on Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood. Why did Nnaife blame Nnu Ego for all his problems

Analyze the question: It asks why Nnaife blamed Nnu Ego for his problems in The Joys of Motherhood. The question has to be checked against what actually happens in the novel.

Recall the plot: Nnu Ego and Nnaife have several children: Oshia, Adim, Adaku's side of the family, and the twins Taiwo and Kehinde, plus Nnamdi and Igbo. Their daughters are Taiwo and Kehinde. Kehinde, the second twin, is the one who chooses her own husband. She runs off with a Yoruba man, Alaba, and marries him, which angers the family and the Igbo community.

Nnaife is Igbo, and Kehinde's marriage to a man outside the community breaks tradition. Nnaife is deeply upset. Some accounts also have Nnu Ego blamed because she raised her children in that environment, but the key trigger is the daughter's choice of a Yoruba husband.

Checking the options:

• A. A slap is not the central issue in the novel.
• B. The daughter did not go abroad. It was Oshia who went to America to study.
• C. Associating with prostitutes is not part of the plot.
• D. A daughter running away with a Yoruba man matches the novel's events.

One caution: I'm working from memory of the plot, and in the text Nnaife's blaming of Nnu Ego is less explicit than the options suggest.

Answer: D

Exam tip: In JAMB literature questions, eliminate options that contradict the main events. Here, "abroad" belongs to Oshia, not the daughters, and the cultural conflict over marrying outside the ethnic group is a recurring theme (tradition versus change), so choose the option that fits that theme.