Table of Contents

Section Page Number

Biographical Data 3

Summary of Text 4

Evaluation of Author’s Choices and Presentation of Material 5

Bibliography 8

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 Biographical Data

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who also writes under the pseudonym Amanda N. Adichie,
is a Nigerian novelist, essayist, poet, playwright, and short story writer. She was born
September 15, 1977 in Enugu, Nigeria to a professor at the University of Nigeria. Her mother
was the first female registrar at the University. She grew up in the university town of Nsukka.
The house in which she grew up was previously occupied by Chinua Achebe, an Igbo author
known for his Nigerian masterpiece ‘Things Fall Apart’ and of whom Adichie credits with her
literary success. Her desire to write was sparked by his work. Adichie is the fifth child of six and
is of Igbo decent. She goes by the nickname “Orange” given to her by her sister and is well
known back in her home, Nigeria. Her desire to write stemmed from growing up in a university
environment. Moreover, at the age of 19, Adichie left Nigeria to pursue communications at
Drexel University. She earned her degree in communication and political science at Eastern
Connecticut State University where she graduated summa cum laude. Later, she began her MFA
courses in Literature at Johns Hopkins University.

Adichie began writing her debut novel during her time at Eastern Connecticut State
University. In 2003, she received the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for Best First Book.
However, it was her preceding novel ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ which made Adichie a sensation. The
book encompassed the Nigerian Civil War during which Adichie grew up and where she lost her
grandparents. The book was awarded the Orange Prize in 2007. Nonetheless, Adichie’s ‘Purple
Hibiscus’ gained abundant critical reception. Many have commended her intelligent and
staunch portrayal of the impact of war on communities and individuals. According to Dawes,
2005, Adichie writes a remarkable literary debut concluding that it is a wonderful relief to
discover Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s fresh, compelling voice. Many have praised her
compassion, her riveting characters and her powerful storytelling. When asked about the
effects of winning the Orange prize Adichie claims,”...I don’t really feel that my life has changed,
but the perception of my work and me has changed here in Nigeria.”

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 As with her following novel ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ Adiche’s ‘Purple Hibiscus’ is highly
influenced by the effects of Nigeria’s post colonial past. Choosing to write first from her
experience as an affluent and educated Nigerian, Adichie is a staunch feminist and uses her
work as a way to work through the misogyny and condescension she has faced as an African
woman in the global literary community. The novel incorporates themes of Nigerian politics,
domestic violence, national identity and the effects of colonialism. Moreover, she has used
small fragments of her native Igbo tongue in her work. She claims that language and style are of
great importance making reference to good prose stylists who pay attention to technique. She
also expresses her concern for the “rhythm of a sentence” praising skilful use of poetic prose by
writers. Adichie is influenced by everything she reads. She prefers “quiet, careful writing...
literature that makes you think of that interesting word “art”” (Tunca, 2005).

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 Summary of Text

‘Purple Hibiscus’ is set in the city of Enugu during post-colonial Nigeria, a country beset
by political instability and economic difficulty. The novel centres on young Kambili Achike who
has a compulsion to please her father Eugene, a staunch Catholic business man, despite his
brutal treatment displayed upon her, her brother, Jaja, and their mother, Beatrice. Kambili, as
the child narrator, presents her father with an air of Catholic supremacy. She desires to please
Papa (Eugene Achike) who is a stern authoritarian and whose tyranny and strict adherence to
Catholicism causes his love for his family to be overshadowed by cruelty and fanaticism. The
novel explores the tension between Igbo, the native culture, and Western culture through the
perspective of fifteen year-old Kambili. Her industrial father, Eugene is known in the community
as a pious and generous man who courageously stands against the policies of the military
government of Nigeria.

Adichie intentionally set Papa Eugene, with his abusive reputation known only to his
family, as a tyrant. As the Achike household strives to free itself from the powerful horrors and
terrors that Eugene overwhelmed them with, so do the Nigerian people live with and endure
one military plot after the other. As the political situation heats up, Jaja and Kambili are sent to
stay with their Aunt Ifeoma, a respected university professor and her three children who live in
Nsukka. There, Kambili embraces her independence and begins to blossom. She and Jaja return
home to find that the abuse has not ceased. Beatrice and Jaja reach their breaking point and
poison Eugene’s tea, resulting in his death. Jaja takes responsibility in the hope of saving their
mother from a death sentence. The novel is a coming of age tale, defining love versus hatred,
freedom and the role of the post-colonial woman. As dark events unravel in the novel the
reader holds out the prospect of redemption and hope. Adichie carefully intertwines the
political instability of Nigeria and the internal drama of the Achike family to create a riveting
tale that is ‘Purple Hibiscus’.

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 Evaluation of Author's Choices and Presentation of Material

Chimamanda N. Adichie wrote the novel "Purple Hibiscus" with a purpose. The novel is
dressed with many elements of prose fiction writing which showcase her pre-occupation with
human relations. It tells of a teenager who watches her family break down and “fall apart” in a
country which is also falling apart. The events take place in Nigeria and are narrated by
fourteen- year old Kambili. She is an obedient, only daughter of a harsh Roman Catholic
patriarch, Eugene, a wealthy local businessman in the city of Enugu. Eugene is the administrator
of the local newspaper in which he advocates freedom of speech against the military’s tyranny.
Ironically, he rules his home with the most tyrannical of grips. Adichie displays her concerns by
juxtapositioning the political instability of Nigeria and the individual emotions felt by Eugene,
Kambili, Jaja and Beatrice and ultimately the fate of the Achike family. She introduces themes
of extreme patriarchy, domestic violence and religious dogma which seem to weigh heavily on
the reader.

‘Purple Hibiscus’ exposes many of Adichie’s concerns. She leans on the issue of
masculine dominance which is exhibited in her characterization of Eugene Achike. She exhibits
great concern with patriarchy in the home and she highlights the devastating effects of
patriarchal control and intolerance within a family. Eugene Achike is designed with great power
and control over his family. He is a radical Catholic man whose religious extremism has blinded
him from the realities of his family as he exerts both physical and mental abuse toward them.
His character in the novel can be interpreted as an archetype for abusive men; a prime example
of fanaticism and extreme demonstration of power in a household, not necessarily in Nigeria
alone but any patriarchal household where the head of the household is an aggressive one.
Adichie is highlighting examples of such extremities and behaviours of an abusive, sadistic
father and husband. Eugene is not only presented to the reader as a symbol of religious
dogmatism but also as a warning against extremism of all kinds. She manipulates Eugene’s
character to expose the temperament of most extremely religious parents whose religious
ideals have robbed them of their humanity.

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 According to Stobie, 2010, the reader is invited to experience loss of absolute faith, but
not love as Kambili acknowledges that her personal household “god”, her father, Eugene, is far
from perfect.

Papa Nnukwu and Aunt Ifeoma are presented in the novel as Eugene’s father and sister.
Papa Nnukwu is an old man who seems to be in keeping with the traditional Igbo culture.
Ifeoma is a liberal thinker and mother whose methods of parenting are contrary to that in
Beatrice’s home where she and her children are conditioned to act like robots because of
Eugene’s tyranny. The reader can interpret that Ifeoma is the epitome of the post- colonial
woman whereas Beatrice is a representation of the traditional Igbo woman. Papa Nnukwu
suffers greatly at the hands of Eugene because of his traditional religious beliefs. Adichie
exhibits her concern with religious hybridity here as the reader sees how traditional Igbo
culture versus Catholicism creates conflict amongst characters. Papa Nnukwu is denied his right
to be respected because of his “heathen faith.”

The reader sees three main perspectives which Kambili provides such as Aunt Ifeoma’s
sense of democracy and freedom, Papa Eugene’s dictatorship and Kambili, being the narrator
herself. Adichie has displayed skilful use of perspectives in designing her novel as she explores
a plethora of viewpoints throughout the book.

Adichie skillfully uses the child narrator, Kambili, to reveal the extremely dynamic
relationships within the Achikie household. Fifteen year old Kambili Achike provides our
perspective on her authoritarian father, and her diminished life dramatizes the effects of a
powerful father on a young girl. According to Adichie, employing a child narrator is “to properly
convey the message and issues presented in the novel. Kambili’s innocence and raw sense of
the truth is what helps the reader to see the truth about the Achike household.” Adichie wants
the reader to sympathize with Kambili as she narrates the disintegration of her family.
Employing any perspective of a character other than Kambili to tell the story would have been
less effective in creating suspense for the reader. She provides realism and unbiased judgement
throughout the novel making it nearly impossible not to connect with her. Dawes, 2005, points
out that, “Adichie tells her story with something akin to the psychological disinterest of a

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deeply traumatized person who has cultivated the skill to seem calm as a way of holding back
the emotional collapse that appears on the verge of consuming her (page 3).” This magnifies to
a great extent the accuracy of Kambili’s state as she narrates the story. Not only is the abuse
from her father mentally and physically scarring her but the ultimate fate of her family and
their survival also seems to consume her.

Adichie’s prose is confident and charged with a certain emotional intelligence that
draws us so fully into her story that we barely notice the craft. She makes use of many narrative
techniques which thoroughly portray her concerns and as such, the themes of the novel to the
reader. The utilization of a child narrator, points of view and theme fiercely bring to the fore
the condensed albeit eventful tale that is ‘Purple Hibiscus.’

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 Bibliography

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1991.

Dawes, Kwame. Review of Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. World

Literature Today 79, No 1, January, 2005.

Shea,Rene. An Interveiw With Fiction Writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie retrieved

February, 9 2015 from
www.pw.org/content/interview_fiction_writer_chimamanda_ngozi_adichie

Stobie, Cheryl. Father: Religion, Patriarchy and Politics in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s
Purple Hibiscus. Literature and Theology. Advanced Access Publications. November
2010.

Tunca, Daria. 2009. An Ambiguous “Freedom Song”: Mind-Style in Chimamanda Ngozi

Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus retrieved January 8, 2015 from
www.postcolonial.org/index.php/pct/article/viewArticle/925