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Use Of Foils In Purple Hibiscus

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Matthew Sloan Solove Literary Foundations 4/14/23 Foils in Purple Hibiscus When there is a pair of characters in a story that are complete opposites of each other, but strangely, they complement each other’s personalities, this is a foil. Authors use foils in many ways, but they always do one thing – reveal a deeper understanding of the characters. “Purple Hibiscus” by Chimamanda Ngoza Adichie, is a bildungsroman about Kambili Achike, who is a quiet, insecure girl whose father is abusive. As the story progresses, Kambili finds herself and learns to truly use her voice. Adichie uses foil characters to show a contrast in personalities – some examples are Kambili and Amaka, Eugene and Ifeoma, and Mama and Ifeoma. The first and most obvious foil is Kambili and her cousin Amaka. Kambili is a shy, quiet, and insecure girl whilst Amaka is outspoken, …show more content…

Eugene is controlling and oppressive, and Ifeoma is fun and supportive. They are complete opposites of each other: Eugene is full of anger, whilst Ifeoma is a fun and happy person. He controls his family, and Ifeoma loves and supports her family. Papa silently manipulates his family, and this is proven when it says that “He [Papa] poured the hot water on my feet” (194). Eugene tells his children that he wants them to drink the tea because he loves them – calling it a “love sip.” Instead, he is doing this to subconsciously manipulate his children into being less powerful than him. Ifeoma is nothing like this – she is incredibly supportive of her children. Kambili and Jaja discover this when they visit her. This can be proven when the book says, “setting higher and higher expectations for them in the way she talked to them, in what she expected of them” (226). Ifeoma is a loving, supportive person that would never harm her children or family deliberately. Two siblings being complete opposites is quite a common foil scheme, The happy one being Ifeoma and Eugene the angry

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