Mommy Issues In Geha's Short Story 'Monkey Business'

Mommy Issues
Being a “man’s man” is every societies’ point of view of how a man should be. A strong, dominant figure able to take care of what needs care. Geha’s short story “Monkey Business” portrays a community that is critical of a man’s inability to be a “practical man.” The main character, Zizi, lost his wife and is having trouble raising his son without a mother, so he decides he will remarry in order to help himself and his son. However; this new wife-to-be is not exactly the community’s idea of what Zizi’s new wife and mother to his son should be. But, while the community disagrees with Zizi’s bride he can’t help but feel a manly sensation when he sees her. She is what he believes he needs. Zizi’s inability to convert to society’s
If Zizi knew how to control his son and had the care of a mother as a child he would not crave this mother for his son and wife and companion in the way that he does. Most men crave women for the simple primal act of sex. Zizi does not want a woman for this reason. He genuinely needs a mother figure in his life. That is why this bride sent from the homeland is so pleasing to Zizi. She isn’t needed to take care of his needs in the bedroom, more so she is needed to take care of him in all other aspects of life. Zizi’s lack of the common man’s need for a woman creates another barrier for him to overcome in his reach for manliness. Society’s definition of being a “practical man” is far from what Zizi will ever be. But it is also society holding him back from becoming this man that society expects him to be. Pushing him away from this motherly figure that Zizi definitely needs is a major reason for his inability to adapt and conform to society. Even though this woman is not what Zizi’s community believes is best for him deep down he knows it is what he needs. But by “conforming” to society in pushing away what he really needs, Zizi is really pushing himself farther from the man society is expecting him to