Overview of Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Adichie

Women have always been partly equal to men in pre colonial Nigeria, having equal but separate roles politically and shared authority in the home. Colonialism changed this form of life of the Igbo culture by imposing Christianity and the idea of the man being the head of the village and the women inferior. Women were also stripped of their rights to have or not have children and forced to be in abusive arranged marriages. Colonialism then ended because the natives felt that self-determination had to replace colonialism and the colonizing nations were bankrupt from World War I resulting in small investment to the colonies. Decolonization was not an effortless trouble, but rather arduous and extensive, especially to women’s rights. Women’s roles in the Igbo culture changed drastically from equal, to less than men and to struggling to get by in each stage of colonialism within the work force, family and rights.

The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie highlights the often challenging lives of Nigerian women living in Africa, but also abroad in the United States. It is however, not the difficulties which Adichie is ultimately focusing on, but the courage and intelligence of women who are able to make ‘small victories’, overcoming various attempts of cultural oppression.

In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, women of the Ibo tribe are terribly mistreated, and viewed as weak and receive little or no respect outside of their role as a mother. Tradition dictates their role in life. These women are courageous and obedient. These women are nurturers above all and they are everything but weak.

Chimamanda Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus is a story set in Nigeria told from the perspective of Kambili and her journey towards independence; along the way, she looks to the female role models in her life, each which aid her path to liberation. Mama and Aunty Ifeoma are two vital female characters to the development of the story but with stark contrasts; Mama’s submissive and reserved demeanor provides a perfect foil to Aunty’s outgoing and independent personality. They both influence Adichie’s bildungsroman, but how they aid Kambili’s endeavor is strikingly different. Mama and Aunty Ifeoma represent the female figures in Kambili’s life; Mama shows Kambili to submit to the men in her life, while Aunty Ifeoma opens up the idea of being independent and free thinking. Mama stresses submission and dependency as a sacrifice to tradition while Aunty Ifeoma emphasizes independent thought to embrace oneself and progress over all others. The way that these two women uphold themselves throughout the novel, demonstrates how these patriarchal societies, like the one in Nigeria, restrict women like Mama, while women like Aunty are deemed rebellious to society.

TOPIC 2: Analyse the development of Kambili in Purple Hibiscus as she moves from strict, fearful obedience to tentative defiance of her father. In your response account for her initial subservience and explain what factors contribute to her increasing maturity and independence.

The relationship between Kambili and Aunt Ifeoma and her family, also develops her relationship with Papa Nnukwu – Eugene’s non-Catholic father. All her life, she has been taught by her

The novel Purple Hibiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, is a story of a young girl , who tries to find her own voice and speak out against her violent oppressive father. The novel is set in post-post-colonial Nigeria, in a time in which the government was run by a military dictatorship. There are a number of symbols used to help develop ideas in the text; the three most important ones being purple and red hibiscuses and Mama’s figurines. The red hibiscuses are symbolic of the violence in Kambili’s life while the purple hibiscuses symbolise freedom, defiance and the freedom to speak out. The figurines are symbolic of Mama’s quiet character and of the violence in her home. These symbols are there to show the

Women are often thought of as the weaker, more vulnerable of the two sexes. Thus, women’s roles in literature are often subdued and subordinate. In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, women are repressed by an entrenched structure of the social repression. Women suffer great losses in this novel but, also in certain circumstances, hold tremendous power. Achebe provides progressively changing attitudes towards women’s role. At first glance, the women in Things Fall Apart may seem to be an oppressed group with little power and this characterization is true to some extent. However, this characterization of Igbo women reveals itself to be prematurely simplistic as well as limiting, once

Nigeria, a barren wasteland, now an uprising land of civilization enters an era of ferocity, dominance, depravity. From the ashes of Nigeria, emerges Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the author of Purple Hibiscus. She intertwines Purple Hibiscus with her personal memories; she wrote her tale based on her experience-religion, history, and politics. Purple Hibiscus is a novel expressing the complexity of the human nature. From tragedies to happiness, life is a pendulum of occasions. Life consists of abrupt changes; these changes are caused by external factors such as government. However, when a government is corrupt, two primary courses are presented: to submit or rebel. The corruption within government vastly expands towards major concepts-politics, economy, religion-that influences people’s lives. Therefore, Adichie exposes the detrimental transformation of a tyrannical government through her portrayal of the economic, religious, and political strife throughout Nigeria.

Gender roles govern the way that most of the world’s population interact with one another. Many African cultures uphold deeply patriarchal gender roles which dictate how women and men interact with one another. Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie, a staunch feminist, gives readers a look into Nigerian gender roles in her short story Birdsong. Her writing in Birdsong and her TEDtalks explore and expose how these gender roles are harmful and how important it is for many stories of young women of color to be heard.

In the novel Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the author shows how Papa’s actions and treatment of other people represent the effects of colonization. Adichie shows the culture clash brought by Western colonization through Papa. His reactions to being exposed to the Igbos’ traditional practices, his rejection of it and his actions towards Kambili and Jaja symbolizes the interaction and conflicts between Western and Igbo culture. Papa’s negativity to anything Igbo after he is exposed to it is described by Kambili. One instance of this is when the visiting priest came to their church, and broke into an Igbo song during a sermon.

“A heartfelt novel that sheds dramatic light on the ugly truths of family violence. Adichie has wrested moments of pure beauty and grace out of the siblings’ quiet rebellion” (Time Out New York). Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel Purple Hibiscus is a revolutionary stride into the deep unseen torture of domestic abuse, and the uprising that comes to end it. It is remarkable the power and strength behind Adichie and her words. A writer from Time Out New York understood Adichie’s points. Time Out New York’s review of Purple Hibiscus speaks volumes for what Adichie has done in her novel.

TOPIC 2: Analyse the development of Kambili in Purple Hibiscus as she moves from strict, fearful obedience to tentative defiance of her father. In your response account for her initial subservience and explain what factors contribute to her increasing maturity and independence.

In Purple Hibiscus “silence and Feminism” is a theme of grave adversity. The household in which the story surround comprised of Papa Eugene, mother Beatrice, daughter Kambili and son Jaja. Papa Eugene is a very successful and prominent figure who dominated the family with an iron fist. His devout to Catholicism propel him from a loving public figure to an authoritative husband and father at the hint of any religious indiscretion. His method of punishments is immoral by nature, but yet no one dear speak against him. They flout it, acting as if though nothing occurred and returned to normalcy just as fast as Papa violent outburst. The silence is abnormal and heavy; Kambili feels “suffocated” by it (Adichie 7).He is, a sick, demented man who is

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel, Purple Hibiscus, is an unconventional coming of age novel, set in postcolonial Nigeria. Kambili, a teenage Igbo girl, lives with her brother Jaja, mother and her wealthy, religious zealot father, who abuses the family in the name of Catholicism. Kambili sees her life as the norm, however her paradigm completely changes when she and Jaja go to spend a week at her Aunty Ifeoma’s house; and the freedom they experience creates a staggering rift within their family. It addresses various themes and motifs, including religion, domestic abuse, silence, and political strife. However, one of the more underrated themes in the book is the imagery of nature; the text is littered with vivid imagery and analogies connecting the characters with this theme. Weather is one aspect of nature that becomes prevalent, and gives the events in the book a deeper and more subtle meaning that goes missed by most. Adichie uses the weather as a symbolic undertone to illustrate the emotional shift of Kambili between her life in Engu and her newfound freedom in Nsukka.