Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Kambili
lives within the walls of her family’s compound. She follows the schedule
provided to her by her father, tries to accomplish first in her class every
term and ignores the sounds of her mother being beaten. Kambili has felt her
father’s anger before too. Her brother JaJa is also no stranger to her father’s
hands and the belt. Her father wants them to be as close to God as possible and
when they fail, he punishes them out of love. Her father is a very wealthy,
very well-known man and depended on by the people of his home village. Whenever
they return he brings food and money to the village and shuns his own father,
Kambili’s grandfather, accusing him of being a heathen for not converting to
Catholicism like he has. When the government begins to fall around them he
allows Kambili and JaJa to travel away for the first time, spending a week with
his sister and her children. It is there Kambili learns what it’s like to live
outside her father’s control, listening to music and watching TV, pastimes she
was never allowed to enjoy. That is also where she realizes just how unhappy
she has been for most of her life, seeking approval from a man who has caused
her so much harm out of love.
Sometimes
you don’t know that you have been hurting until you have been removed from the
source of that pain. That seems obvious with Kambili and her narrative. Always
seeking approval from her father, she had no idea the kind of psychological
trauma she was experiencing under him. She had no concept of what normal was.
The wealth that she was always privy to meant security but it never guaranteed
happiness. When placed in an environment completely different than what she has
ever known Kambili slowly starts to realize how unhappy she had been. I enjoyed
Kambili’s narrative. Her naiveté was painful at first but it made her growth
that much more endearing. She was constantly reexamining her family, mulling
over their life and their views.
Adichie
did a really amazing job with this story. From character development to world
development, to examining religion and its effect on Kambili’s family.
Everything was so well fleshed out and so well executed. As the reader, I
realized very early on how convoluted Kambili’s father was and how manipulative
he was towards those around him. Reading Kambili’s journey and watching her
discover the truth behind her happiness was really intriguing and really well
paced. The subtlety of Adichie’s writing lends itself really well to this
story. I give this 4 out of 5 stars.
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