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Purple Hibiscus Essay

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Recommended: Theme of religion in Purple Hibiscus

Is Religion portrayed as an evil and enslaving tool that hurts and breaks relationships?

Purple Hibiscus is a novel written by renowned Nigerian author,”Ngozi Adichie.” The novel takes place in Nigeria and there are two distinct families of the same bloodline who have radically different traditions and ways of life. A number of crucial themes sprung up from these two families such as dictatorship, faith, love and much more. The majority of themes that are present in the book reflect and allude to the postcolonial state of Nigeria. The postcolonial state of Nigeria was very militarial and authoritarian. It had a gap between the Christians, who had good contact with the former British colonizers and the Pagans. In the following Essay, we will …show more content…

This is evident by the character of Eugene in relation to his pagan father’s death in which he takes a very uncaring mood and wishes not to take part in his funeral because he is a pagan. Eugene says, ’’I cannot participate in a pagan funeral, but we can discuss with the parish priest and arrange a catholic funeral’’ To add some context to the quote, it is a response to Aunty Ifeoma. Aunty Ifeoma is recorded to say,’’Is that all you can say,eh,Eugene?Have you nothing else to say,gbo?Our father has died!Has your head turned upside down? Will you not help me bury our father?’’ As we can see.Aunty Ifeoma’s questions are very concrete and strong in nature. Her use of both English and Igbo words show that she was in a state of great grief and emotion. Adichie furthermore conveys her high emotion by bringing in questions after questions and introducing exclamation marks. She gives Papa Eugene the perfect response as it is very weak to a range of strong and straightforward questions. It emphasizes his relation towards his father, which obviously is filled with contempt. This clearly details religion as a driver of wars and a gadget used to hate. It makes people rebuff their own bloodline relatives due to differences in

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He no longer believes in a God that he once took so much pride on during the beginning of the novel. The inhumanity toward other humans can also serve as a theme. What the book describes, throughout the whole novel, is how inhuman, they are being treated. Not only were given little food and water, but where they were living was as similar as to that of a pig barn. They are forced to work in horrible weather conditions and are offered light clothing.

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The novel, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, defines an important literary example of the historical conflict of European colonialism in Nigeria during the

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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.

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longer followed by feelings of guilt that papa’s moralistic Christian worldview provoked in her earlier. Even though his teenage romance does not end happily from kambili’s viewpoint, her relationship with father Amadi is a strongly empowering one: not only does it allow her to find her sexual identity, but it also allows her to find a more tolerant and liberal interpretation, of religiousness and, above all, the courage of questioning. Later, father Amadi, with his tender and supportive attitude, becomes a new masculine authority for kambili, who believes that “his word is true” (302). Kambili’s admiration of father Amadi signals yet again her desperate need for a father figure. While the focus is Purple Hibiscus is admittedly the national, the transnational dimension represents an important narrative bypath.

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