Ethical Paralysis In Purple Hibiscus By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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In her TedTalk, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie speaks about the issue of having a single story of any place or any people. Single stories result in stereotypes, in negative perceptions, and a complete lack of understanding of the true complexity under the surface. This constantly occurs with Africa, it’s people, and the situations that it faces from colonialism to the Rwandan genocide. Single stories are wrong and should be amended and complex understandings of other groups should be supported. Unfortunately, this rarely happens and we often face the world with simple understandings of other parts of the world. Ethnic complexity is important, integral for change, but the truth is that the so-called ethical paralysis is more common.
In Purple Hibiscus, …show more content…

There must be a transitional phase between ethical paralysis and a complex understanding and this is what Jaja and Kamibili represent. They move from the single story that their own father and Father Benedict hold about Africa, it’s people, and its traditions to a complex understanding that considers the pre, during, and post-colonial phases of African history, which is more similar to what Aunty Ifeoma hold. This is an integral stage in that no one is born with a complex understanding and they learn from what they are exposed to. For Jaja and Kambili they know nothing but what their father has told and shown them. When they go to live with their Aunt, they begin their journey into complex understanding. While it is important to gather that a complex ethical understanding involves a process that people must go through, it is also integral to understand that most people do not care to …show more content…

This has been proven again and again throughout history with the encounters of various Europeans with the people of Africa and the Americas. It does not aid these groups to learn anything past these simple stories. This can be observed when we consider the Rwandan Genocide. When the Belgians were in power, they changed the meaning of what being Hutu and Tutsi meant and changed it into something that was just a meaningless title to an integral part of who these people were. Later on this lead to the Rwandan Genocide. Because of the United Nation’s, including the UN peacekeepers, single story based understanding kept them from effectively helping the people of Rwanda. Their single story allowed people to die and if you cannot learn how to engage in complex understanding in order to save lives, when will

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