What is the relationship between father and son in Achebe's "Marriage is a Private Affair?"

It is a difficult relationship that exists between father
and son.  Okeke has faith in his son and believes in his son until he chooses a bride
that the father did not select.  This arouses an intense schism between both father and
son.  Nnaemeka does not seem angry at his father.  In fact, the opening of the story has
him speaking in hushed and scared tones to Nene about his impending marriage to her and
his father's reaction to it.  Okeke cannot comprehend the perceived insult of his son
choosing a bride on his own and wishes to have nothing to do with his son or his
marriage.  When Nnaemeka tries to reach out in letters, he is rebuked by the his father,
including a desecrated picture of Nene as a bride.  The relationship is restored only
through Nene's dignified stance of seeking reconciliation between father and
son.

Achebe brings out how the intense reverence of
tradition at all costs can impact the relationships in families.  This is certainly the
case between father and son, between Okeke and Nnaemeka.  One can presume that Okeke is
angry because his son has sought to break tradition of the Ibo, has gone against his
father's wishes.  This relationship is impacted through the upholding of tradition at
the cost of familial bonds.  It is for this reason that there is such an intense fear
that Okeke feels that his upholding of tradition will permanently impact the
relationship between father and son with his death.  This fear, almost an impending
sense of doom, is the closing image of the story, where a father seeks to run back to
the son he has abandoned.  This is a touching image for all who have experienced a sense
of abandonment in the hopes that the wrongs that have been perpetrated by family members
can be rectified without a permanent end being dictated.