Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
:wilted_flower: Purple Hibiscus purple_hibiscus_by_jeanicebartzen27…
:wilted_flower: Purple Hibiscus 
Character Analysis
Kambili
Kambili narrates and tells the novel Purple Hibsicus in first person, and in doing so gives us more of an insight into her character progression and internal thoughts than any other character. As the story's protagonist, Kambili endures abuse and high expectations from Eugene, her father, and comes to a realization about her life after visiting her Aunt Ifeoma for a week.
Kambili is important because she shows that freedom cannot be stolen by oppressive leaders, and cannot be overridden by tyranny
-
Eugene (Papa)
He is the father of Jaja and Kambili and owns a juice factory which makes him rich, and he has an abusive and controlling power structure over his family. He is very religious, and an important member of the Catholic church. He is also a revolutionary, fighting political oppression in Nigeria while destroying his family at the same time.
Papa's hypocrisy–going against the things he preaches in church. Eugene separates his religious beliefs from his behavior, Ties into the theme that morality can only be defined by ones actions. Papa controls his family in order to further his own (false) self-image.
Papa runs a newspaper criticizing the Nigerian government and fighting for justice, but abuses his children. Ties into the theme that a person can be two-sided.
Jaja
Jaja is more willing to go against Papa’s orders, because Papa does not want to punish him. He is also able to express his frustrations with Catholicism, he has less fear despite the knowledge that he may be punished.
Jaja is important because he demonstrates the other side of gender roles and is more willing to stand for what he believes in than Kambili. He also acts as a reference point in the development of Kambili's Character. Jaja is in a similar situation to his sister, and has similar expectations placed upon him by Eugene. But Jaja is more confident, allowing him to be a "what if" for Kambili.
-
Themes
Gender roles
Men are expected to lead, have careers, not show emotion, and tell women and children what to do. Women are expected to remain silent, well mannered, and composed in the background and not defy the orders of men.
Eugene expects Jaja to take on a dominant, powerful role in the family structure, always adhering to a masculine position in the rules of a westernized “nuclear family.”
At the end of Purple Hibiscus, Beatrice (Mama), in frustration, pushes back at this unfair societal role by poisoning her husband
-
Men and women are expected to take different roles in society, and never talk to each other openly about their emotions (especially in Eugene's household)
"There is so much that is still silent between Jaja and me. Perhaps we will talk more with time, or perhaps we never will be able to say it all, to clothe things in words, things that have long been naked." (p. 25)
-
Morality
Morality is defined by actions, not merely someone's self-declared "beliefs"
-
-
Key Moments
“Only the Nigerian Reverend Sisters stood sang, teeth flashing against their dark skins. The white Reverend Sisters stood with arms folded, or lightly touching the glass rosary beads that dangled at their waists, carefully watching to see that every student’s lips moved.”
-
″Things started to fall apart at home when my brother, Jaja, did not go to communion."
Kambili, and the rest of her family, see Jaja as rebellious and an instigator of conflict
“I knew that when the tea burned my tongue, it burned Papa’s love into me."
-
“We did not scale the rod because we ... could, we scaled it because we were terrified ... we couldn’t.”
Demonstrates the fear that Kambili faces and the high expectations that Eugene places on them–they are terrified of not being able to do something
-