Purple Hibiscus Literary Analysis Essay

Introduction

Purple Hibiscus is the story of a family surrounded by a religion that, instead of complementing life, destroys it. This religion is Christianity, which rooted in a fanatical father, generates anguish, pain and despair in Kambili, the storyteller-character. Kambili is fifteen years old and lives in Nigeria, but her life is very different from what we can expect. Her father is a big capitalist - owner of a newspaper and a miscellaneous goods factory - and has assured her, her brother Jaja and her mother, a life outside local standards. They have their own big house in the city, a summerhouse in another town, drivers, servants, and everything that does not necessarily match what we imagine in Africa for "ordinary people." In fact, anywhere in the world, this lifestyle is a little bit out of the ordinary.

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Kambili's father refuses to speak the local language, the Igbo and is a fervent Catholic. He demands that his family follow these same guidelines by enrolling their children in one of the best private schools in the country - where all classes are in English and taking them to Mass weekly. At times, he compares blacks and whites saying that Nigerians have a lot to learn from the way whites do things. Like every man is accustomed to bossing around in the house, he has very specific rules of conviviality: either they are followed, or things are solved in the beating (Purple Hibiscus 23). The mother rarely goes unscathed. Kambili and Jaja are already accustomed to hearing their mother pick up her father without making a sound, and from time to time help her clean the blood on the white rugs after a corrective session.

In addition to the wealth he has built, Eugene is extremely religious by the influence of the British colonization missionaries in Nigeria, having become a Christian fundamentalist. In this way, he submits the family to not only to strict dogmatic precepts but also the children to a repressive education, which does not exclude the obedience of his wife. This is the great motto of conflicts in family coexistence. When Eugene is disobeyed, everyone suffers. Mostly the family. He beats the woman and beats the children, in fact; the cruelty of the man awakens the feeling of oppression within the luxurious house where they live (Purple Hibiscus 25). He is known for helping all those who follow the same principles as him, but Eugene is only on the side of those who think like him. Kambili is therefore hampered by the slightest mistakes, such as being second to the high marks in the class, such as talking to his grandfather (who is considered pagan by his son) or even living outside the bubble that his father created.

Kambili and Jaja need always to be the first in the class. They have strict schedules of tasks that do not include adolescents' typical leisure time, such as watching television or listening to music. They must speak perfectly British English and avoid as much as possible the local language, the Igbo. They cannot be questioners and silence must be respected (which does not prevent them from establishing complicity in their eyes), and they are expected to always respond to what the Pope would like to hear. Beyond these behavioral issues, they must also fulfill the proper Christian sacraments, such as confessing and communion, studying Bible texts, and praying.

"Papa almost never spoke in Igbo, and although Jaja and I used our tongue with Mama when we were at home, he did not like us to do it in public, he would tell us; we needed to speak English."

It is not only Kambili who suffers from the controlling father's attitudes. All the relatives who live with him receive doses of his controversial behavior, because, for the relatives, there is no affection, but for the outside world, Eugene is known as a generous and just man. The story, by giving little information at first on the reason for the narrator's anguish, leads the reader to a deep reflection on family relations and religion. Kambili's father sees Christianity as a transforming basis for his own life. He was rather a poor man with no financial prospects, through the church; he became a wealthy, powerful man, owner of a newspaper and of food factories. Because of this, or other aspects that lie between the lines, this man builds a fortress and lives a world, apparently beautiful, but inside his mansion, terror is constant for the whole family, due to the physical and psychological violence that he to the children and the wife. With strict schedules and the obligation to be the number one in the school, Kambili does not have great horizons. His life, limited to achieving the demands of his father, gained new prospects with the arrival of his aunt Ifeoma, a university professor, his father's sister, but very different from him since it retains its roots in Nigerian culture and does not treat children with violence. Like a flower, Kambili is lighting up as she approaches his aunt, cousins, and grandfather, who is considered a sinner by his son.

Protagonist and narrator of Purple Hibiscus, the teenager Kambili shows how her father's extremely "white" and Catholic religiosity, Eugene, a famous Nigerian industrialist, slows down and destroys the life of the whole family. Eugene's dread of the primitive traditions of the Nigerian people is such that he even rejects his father, a charming storyteller, and his sister, an enlightened college professor, fearing hell. However, despite his obvious violence and oppression, Eugene is the benefactor of the poor and strangely supports the country's most progressive newspaper.

A teenage girl is standing in a bathtub talking to her father. After a quick dialogue, where he accuses her of having sinned, he decides to punish her and spill boiling water on her feet. This scene may seem absurd (and indeed it is) to readers, but for Kambili, the narrator and protagonist is just one of several punishments for his father, a Catholic fanatic.

"I went into the tub and stood, staring at him. It did not look like Pope was going to get a branch, and I felt the fear, burning and inflamed, filling my bladder and my ears. I did not know what he was going to do to me. It was easier when I saw the branch because I could rub the palms of my hands and tighten my calf muscles to prepare. But Papa had never asked me to stand in the tub. Then I noticed the kettle on the floor beside Pope's feet; the green kettle Sisi used to boil water for tea and garri, the one that beeped when the water began to boil. Papa caught her. "

Being extremely protected, Kambili and Jaja do not know very well how the Nigerians live that do not have their economic conditions. Of course, they know that the country is not very developed, but as this is reflected in the day to day of the people is a mystery to them. If at first, Kambili, Jaja and Mama do not react, submit and omit aggressions, the contraposition will come through Ifeoma who is Eugene's sister and the woman in the garden of purple hibiscus. That ends when they spend a week at their aunt's home - a college professor and a single mother of 3 children. The food is simple, soda is rare, the flush is only at specific times and the bed does not have for everyone. The first contrast is in the field of ideas since Ifeoma, although it has become, is not radical and respects the cultural traditions of its people. She has a respectful relationship with her children and educates them more openly. The second is material because, due to the country's political and economic situation reflected in the mismanagement of the University of Nigeria where Ifeoma works, the family does not have the resources to the minimum necessary. Moreover, it has the same impetus of brotherly justice, but there is no radicalism bias in its thinking, and its ideas are progressive, especially concerning the role and rights of women in a macho society.

At her aunt's house, Kambili goes, for the first time in her life, to know Nigeria and to learn that questioning, doubting and disliking are not characteristics of a sinner as her father tells her. She matures in a week what she has not achieved in 15 years. The book deals much with her growth and how certain experiences begin to shape a mind is accustomed to being dominated by another. Kambili gets to know the world of her cousin Amaka, who listens to local music at high volume while chatting with her group of friends about pop culture. Jaja starts to talk to her cousins and learns to grow flowers in the garden. They both observe with curiosity the differences between they're large, always clean and quiet house and their aunt's house where everyone shares rooms and household chores, but they also play, laugh, pray and sing together every day. For the first time, the protagonist begins to question the rigid rules with which she is accustomed and to mature as she begins to understand more about a reality different from her own. At the same time, she goes through discoveries of adolescence that did not exist until then in her overprotected world, such as that of first love and the need to feel included in groups of other girls. During a season at his aunt's house, Kambili ends up falling in love with a priest who is forced to leave Nigeria for lack of security and prospects. While narrating the adventures and misadventures of Kambili and his family, the novel also presents a striking and original portrait of present-day Nigeria, showing the invasive remnants of colonization both in the country itself and certainly also in the rest of the continent.

The way Kambili's father destroys his family in the name of Catholicism is a beautiful metaphor for how Catholicism ended tribal customs in Nigeria by creating a country with a strong identity crisis between generations. Traditionalist parents wished to keep their local customs away from the Western beliefs of their colonized children. It is a book full of different emotions that often appear at the same time. Anger and compassion are constant. Another fully valid experience of quality African literature and an impressive debut by the author.

Like Brazil, Nigeria also experienced European colonization. However, unlike the United States, the country only gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1960 and soon underwent several military coups (8 strikes during the 20th century). In this context, it is possible to understand the importance of a story like Purple Hibiscus that, through the eyes of a 15-year-old girl, can make people understand the history and politics of a little-known country. Unlike what is often taught to us, the process of colonizing a people does not happen quickly and homogeneously, and it is not only by physical violence. Kambili's father, for example, is an example of this because he is a character who represents the effects of white intervention in an African country.

Eugene is a black man who believes that everything that comes from the European whites is better. Although he grew up with a father who believes in Nigerian religious rituals, he became an adept of English Catholicism after studying at a missionary school that catechized him. His financial and professional ascendancy is related to his denying his origins, always considering more respectful white priests and businessmen. It mirrors its habits, its culture and its business in what is considered the model of "civilized people." In addition to being authoritarian with his sons and his wife, he denies his father who is already old because he considers him a "pagan" and a sinner. It also prevents their children from speaking the local Igbo language and learning the ancient songs of the Nigerian people. Little by little, Eugene destroys his own family by imposing strict Catholic rules on their lives, creating a metaphor for cultural and religious colonization in countries of the African continent.

It is precisely in the construct...