Purple Hibiscus Essay

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Recommended: Scope and concerns of postcolonial literature

The book Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie takes place in postcolonial Nigeria. Kambili, the main character comes of age after spending time away from home with her aunt and cousins. Kambili represents postcolonial Nigeria because she thinks the thing her abusive father is doing to her is for her own good. She later realizes that they are not, like the Nigerians when the British started taking over Nigeria.

Kambili’s aunt Ifeoma convinces her brother Eugene who is Kambili’s father to let Kambili and her older brother JaJa stay at her place Nsukka. This was Kambili first experience away from her home in Enugu even though she is fifteen years old. Kambili’s father is a very wealthy and religious man that abuses his children and wife on a regular basis, and even though …show more content…

In the story Eugene who is Kambili’s father represents the British and Kambili represents Nigeria. When Eugene abuses his children or wife which he does very regularly, he tells his children as he is doing it that he is doing it for their own good. At the beginning of the story Kambili believes this one hundred present. This relates to the British colonizing the Nigerians because at first the Nigerians thought that the British were colonizing them for their own good and that it would help them. After Kambili goes to Nsukka she comes back with a newfound respect for her grandfather and has a painting of her grandfather. Eugene disowned his father because he was a heathen and no heathen was to be associated with him. When he sees Kambili with it he rips it up and beats Kambili continuously with a shoe and a belt until she passes out and this is when she realizes it is not for her own good. Similar to when the Nigerians find out that the British just want to make profit off of their land and are not doing it to help them as they stated in the beginning of the

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