How Is Kambili Alike

The formative experiences that define a child's home life will have a lasting impact on the individual as he or she enters the later stages of childhood, adolescence and adulthood. The degree to which one's family life is loving, nurturing, supportive and attentive is a substantial determinant in emotional, social and intellectual development. Accordingly, a home which is abusive, violent, negative and neglectful is more than likely to have deleterious effects for the child both while and well after maintaining residence there. This turns us toward the focus of the present study, which is the impact levied by domestic violence on children.

This is because they live a different lifestyle, they are not constrained to Papa, they are allowed to be free and experiment! “Nsukka air will be good for me, for my recuperation” Father Amadi is another person who changed Kambili. Father amadi is an encouraging person who makes Kambili change. This is shown when Amadi manages to convince Kambili to run after him! In fact she says “i had smiled, run, laughed”, 3 things she had never done before. Because of the fact that Kambili starts to idealize and fall in love with Amadi that she starts to look up to Amadi and not to her father anymore! Father Amadi can be considered as one of her only friends! Aunty Ifeoma also helped kambili become less dependant on papa, this is shown when she takes the schedules from Kambili and Jaja and for the first time in their life Kambili and Jaja are free to do what they like which causes them to change.

It is common for parents and their children to have disagreements and to have arguments but sometimes these disagreements can turn into abuse. Children usually use violence to try to “control or bully them” (Parenting and Child Health, n.d.) This violence usually occurs when the child “frightens, threatens or physically hurts them. It can involve using abusive language, pushing, shoving, kicking, throwing things, or threatening with knives or other weapons” ((Parenting and Child Heathen’s.) Children may abuse their parents due to the normalization of that parent getting abused by the other parent within their household. The child may use the parent that abusing the other parent as a model for the way they should act towards their parent as well and justify their actions simply as something that they observed in their household. The violence that children commit against their parents affects that subsystem because it leaves it broken. There is a strain within the parent and child relationship that forms a direct result of constant conflict and abuse between the child and parent. Sometimes, in child-child relationships, an older sibling may become “more aggressive” with their younger sibling because of the abuse that they have witnessed and been exposed to. (Fantuzzo, Mohr, 1999) The children can become socialized by the parents to believe that

Jaja never approved of Papa’s ways and when it hit him that Papa wouldn’t change he left home with Kambili to a place that was already up to his expectations, Aunty Ifeoma’s home, “’We are going to Nsukka today, not

Based on Kambili’s adversity when they were going to the festival she was showing that she was happy and bonding time being spent. They were in the car on the way to the festival.”We are almost there and you need your energy”. They We’re talking or arguing and Papa was telling them to be quiet and save their energy.

Kambili has come a long way Amaka has teased her since she arrived at aunty Ifeoma’s house in this situation her back was against the wall and her aunt was not going to intervene which allowed Kambili to fend for herself proving that through adversity there is positive change and also shows that Kambili has developed a vocal trait ( she voices her issue rather than keep it to herself). After this resolution Kambili is hit with another ball of adversity after receiving a painting of papa nnukwu from Amaka Kambili brings the painting back home and tries to hide it but her father finds it and decides to solve the issue with his classic manner, abuse. “Who brought this painting in my house” “me I said” “he started to kick me the kicking increased in tempo”. This is one of the many turning points of the story not only has she disobeyed her father she continues to disobey him while being beat she also starts to open her mind she notices after she was beat that her father isn’t all that of a saint, after all, she did say she had mixed emotions about him this proves the ideology that adversity leads to positive

Father Amadi teaches Kambili to smile. He teaches her that it’s okay to be happy and to express it. He helps break her silence which contributes to her moving away form her father. He helps her through a lot and helps her understand her thoughts and feelings. He also shows her a different side to her religion. A side not only based on the rules but a side based on love and

Jaja’s newfound sense of self leads him to question what his father has taught him. Jaja first finds his sense of self after visiting Nssuka and seeing the freedom that Obiora has. Jaja and Kambili are also exposed to the traditionalist nature of Papa Nnukwu. After returning home Jaja asks if he can “see the painting of Papa Nnukwu” that Amaka painted for Kambili. (Page 208) Jaja knows that if his father, Papa, finds out about the painting, then Papa will abuse both Jaja and Kambili. But, Jaja realizes that no matter what Papa tells him, he wants to understand the peacefulness of Papa Nnukwu and his religion. After being punished abusively, Jaja and Kambili return to Nssuka to take a break from the abusive life back in Enugu. Aunty Ifeoma asks

Violence affects a healthy family’s relationship, state of mind and well-being, in other words, it’s normal functions. Because of violence, children are forced to endure and cope with mental, physical and emotional trauma leading to a display of impacts on health, development, and wellbeing. The effects build up over time and can impact on every aspect of their life.  How many children and innocent lives must suffer from something unnecessary? Imagine walking into a home late at night to find a child hiding in a corner, with a bloody face and cuts all around their body saying they were self-inflicted or making up other silly excuses like falling down the stairs out of extreme fear. Up to 75% of all acts of domestic violence occurs between the ages 18-24. No child should ever see domestic violence as normal because the moment that happens a future perpetrator has been born. We need to take a stand and refuse to let domestic violence become something we ignore.

Adichie presents the theme of gender roles by illustrating Jaja’s feelings of obligation to take care of Mama and Kambili throughout the novel. He never feels as though he is doing enough for the family and constantly compares himself to Obiora, since “[Obiora] balances Aunty Ifeoma’s family on his head” (298) despite being younger than Jaja. Since he is Kambili’s older brother, Jaja constantly tries to protect her, taking the blame for any of her wrongdoings in an attempt to shield her from Papa’s wrath. Even after Papa’s death, Jaja laments his inability to do more for Mama and Kambili despite being a “strong male figure” that they should be able to depend on. It is due to this toxic mentality that Jaja falsely turns himself in to the authorities for Papa’s murder, essentially sacrificing himself for the sake of keeping his mother out of prison. While incarcerated, he still feels guilty for causing his mother and

As can be seen time after time in the novel, being in an oppressive environment has decreased Kambili’s ability to adapt to new situations. Many times in each of our lives we must adapt to new places, situations, people, and opinions. Kambili and Jaja have only ever been greatly subjected to one way of life in which their father rules every action they make. This is shown in the character’s lives when, “Jaja shifted on his chair before pulling his schedule out of his pocked. ‘Aunty, Papa’s schedule says we should study in the evenings; we brought our books.’” This quote depicts a scene in which dinner is over and Aunty Ifeoma’s kids are going to watch tv. Not wanting to disobey their fathers orders they pull out the schedules that have been

Domestic violence also greatly impacts the family structure and the relationships between the members. Domestic violence threatens both the relationship between the child and their mother and the child and their father. Children who are exposed to domestic violence do not have an emotionally available parent to foster their development and have a 30-60% higher risk for being abused by the perpetrator (NCADV, 2007); when the father is the perpetrator of the violence, he often knows little about his children, their interests, and progress in school (Crosson-Tower, 2009, p. 84). The mother’s parenting style may also be damaged from domestic violence; the perpetrator may not allow the mother to take care of her children properly or soothe them when they are upset, which can cause the children to believe their mother does not care for them. When a mother is constantly traumatized by domestic violence, it can be more difficult for her to be present and attentive in her children’s lives due to depression, anxiety, and lack of sleep (Centre for children and families in the justice system, 2009). Domestic violence has an impact on the ability for a family to function. The perpetrator may sow divisions between the members of the family by turning them against each other, or favoring one child over the others. There may also be role reversals in families who experience domestic violence; parentification of the children and infantilizing of the mother may

Family situations in which both parents are under mass amounts of stress and must work tediously to make ends meet are often inclined to have victims of child abuse in the home. Often because of troubled times economically parents reach a breaking point and enforce their anger onto his or her child, beating them physically. In many cases, parents take “teaching their child a lesson” to very high extremes, using the act of discipline to mask an act of physical child abuse. While many parents abuse under stress and frustration, some are too young or immature to handle the responsibilities of a child; not containing the capacity or patience to care for a young one often ends in abuse. As seen there many cases in which guardians cannot handle the tasks of parenthood, leading to acts of abuse. Whereas, there are also many cases in which parents suffer from disorders, increasing the probability of child abuse in a home.

How does domestic violence between parents and parental figures affect the children who witness it? This is a question often asked by Sociologists and Psychologists alike. There have been studies that prove that children who witness domestic inter-parental violence experience mental health problems, issues with gender roles, substance abuse, the committing of crimes and suicide/suicide attempts later in their lives. This paper will explore all five of these 'effects' of domestic violence on children and show that there is evidence of a clear relationship in which increasing parental violence is associated with increasing outcome risks (Fergusson & Horwood, 1998, p.8).

Is silence and violence the way to handle problems in the household? In the novel Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Kambili Achike is a fifteen-year-old girl who lives with her father Eugene, her mother Beatrice and her older brother Jaja. Papa is a wealthy factory owner, and he is a strong believer in the Catholic religion. Papa is a nice guy outside of his home, but inside his home he is strict and is a very violent person. Abuse and violence in your home can cause you to become distant from the world. Abuse can cause you not to talk and communicate through facial expressions and through silence. One of the symbols that emerges from the novel is silence as a symbol of abuse, fear, and punishment.