Compare And Contrast Aunty Ifeoma And Children In Purple Hibiscus

1051 Words5 Pages

Despite growing up in the same house, Aunty Ifeoma and Papa Eugene from the book, Purple Hibiscus, raises their children in contrasting manners. Papa Eugene oppresses his children from having individuality and results to violent punishments when his children go against his views. On the other hand,Aunty Ifeoma is more understanding to her children’s decisions in life and uses more peaceful means to bring her points across. Another clear difference between Ifeoma and Eugene is the teaching methods they use to teach their religion, Catholicism, to their children. Eugene disciplines his child to be prejudiced against heathens while Ifeoma lets her child have more liberty in what to believe. A conspicuous disparity between Aunty Ifeoma and Papa Eugene is their methods in teaching Catholicism to their children. Eugene keeps …show more content…

An example of this would be “‘What is Anikwenwa doing in my house? What is a worshiper of idols doing in my house? Leave my house?’”(Adichie 70) This shows Eugene demanding a person to leave his house just because he is a heathen. This is creates a world where Jaja and Kambili would not be in touch of the Igbo religion at all. In contrast, Aunty Ifeoma brings her children to an Aro festival which is a traditional Igbo parade of masquerading spirits. Even though Aunty Ifeoma’s family doesn’t practice the Igbo religion, Ifeoma still brings her children to a Igbo festival. If Eugene knew of the festival, he would never bring his children to it because of the bubble he created for his children. Another example is “He was not Catholic, that was all; he was not of the faith” (Adichie 81). This line is spoken from Kambili’s thoughts. This demonstrates the effects of how