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Violence In Purple Hibiscus

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Purple Hibiscus depicts an exploration of the connections between differing forms of violence in Nigeria after colonialism. Violence of the military government and the church towards Nigeria is juxtaposed with the violence experienced by the Achike family at the hands of Papa Eugene. This juxtaposition causes the reader to draw a parallel between the private world of the family with that of the public world of the church and state, emphasising the violence which in turn impacts the reader drastically. In this essay the different forms of violence, both in the private world and in the public one, will be explored by examining different forms of it and its escalation. Kambili Achike is the first person narrator of the story. She develops into an aware young girl in her abusive home in a politically unstable Nigeria. Her family is made up of Papa Eugene, Mama Beatrice and Jaja. Although Kambili suffers abuse from her father, she idealises him and somehow manages to justify his violent actions toward her and her family. Instead of having to think about the violence within her family she and Jaja discuss the violence experienced by the public world as the fate of their family becomes a symbol for the fate of the whole country. Adichie makes use of the unstable public world to provide an alternative for …show more content…

The title again places the ideas of religion and violence directly next to each other, drawing a link between violence and religion and how they function together in this novel. The reader asks who is this god that is being broken? The novel suggests that it is the power of Eugene that has been broken. The reader associates Eugene with a god as the people worship him as a god. This is ironic as Eugene wants nothing to do with the pagan beliefs of his past, so much so that he has nothing to do with his father who worships

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