Purple Hibiscus: Abuse

Elsie Giere
Mrs. Scholl
Honors English 9
5 January 2023

Tracing Papas abuse Throughout the book Purple Hibiscus, written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, there are multiple scenarios showing signs of abuse by the main character's father who she calls Papa. The abuse Papa shows through this book is physical abuse, and not only are the kids - Kambili and Jaja - victims of this but so is their mother, who they call Mama. Papa's abuse seems to get more and more extreme throughout the book. What seemed to be at first throwing things, “He picked up the missal and flung it across the room at Jaja,” this happens on pages 7 and 8, to later in the book when he kicks Kambili over and over again as she lay on the floor, “He started to kick me. The metal

Even though they are all suffering from the same kinds of abuse from the same person, Kambili, Jaja, and Mama all react differently to it. Kambili seemed to have an easy time accepting what Papa was doing but at the same time, it made her feel scared/worried. Throughout the book the author really only lets us see how Jaja reacts in two scenarios and in both he seemed to be the person to help clean up what mess was left behind. And last Mama, every time she was abused would polish the figurines on the etagere, she also seemed not to want to acknowledge that anything was

While their reactions stayed the same throughout every scenario we got to see them in, Kambili’s reactions seemed to be completely different from each other every time. The very first time Papa shows any sign of abuse is when he throws the missile across the room at Jaja. “I felt suffocated. The off-white walls with the framed photos of grandfather were narrowing, bearing down on me. Even the glass dining table was moving toward me,” this is what was going through Kambili’s mind - pages 7 and 8 - after Papa had thrown the missile at Jaja. This is how Kambili shows that Papa’s actions make her scared and worried. Kambili’s other reaction to Papa’s abuse is to accept it even though it scares her, this is an example on page 41, “I slipped off my slippers and sank my feet into the rug and decided to keep them sunk in so that my toes would feel cushioned. So that some part of me would feel safe.” Next is Jaja, whose reaction seemed to be to help clean up the mess that was left behind afterward. This is shown in both times that we get to see Jaja react to Papa’s abuse. “Jaja knelt beside Mama, flattened the church bulletin he held into a dustpan, and placed a jagged ceramic piece on it,” this was on page 8 after Papa had thrown the missal at him and missed, hitting Mama’s figurines. The next example of Jaja helping clean up afterward is on page 33 “‘There’s blood on the floor,” Jaja said, ‘I’ll get the brush