Purple Hibiscus: The Hero's Journey

In Purple Hibiscus written by Chimamanda Adichie, the story of Kambili and her experiences throughout Nsukka and Enugu fit with the Hero’s Journey, a model of narrative that describes “the hero,” an archetype that ultimately reaches a great achievement through the stages of the Hero’s Journey. Although played in a realistic setting, unlike many of the examples portrayed in magical worlds such as Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings, Kambili experiences the same stages of the journey and by definition, is considered a hero. The stages that contribute the most significantly to modeling the Hero’s Journey of Kambili is The Ordinary World, Crossing the Threshold, and The Ordeal.
Just as for any hero, Kambili’s journey starts out with The Ordinary World. Kambili’s ordinary world is characterized by a structured, secluded life controlled by her

orthodox Catholic father. Father expects perfection from Kambili and her brother Jaja; he writes a daily schedule for every day of his children’s lives with “meticulously drawn lines, in black ink, cut across each day separating study from siesta, siesta from family time, family time from eating…” (Adichie 24). Kambili, raised inside “the compound walls...so high I (she) could not see the cars driving by on our street,” never experienced a life where she did not have a schedule to follow. Even at school, where she would never interact with fellow peers except for academic purposes, Kambili was expected to always place first in class. Father would say that “He (God) expects perfection,” and punishments would be harsh, including beating. Kambili’s ordinary world, the only one she was exposed to, was empty of laughter and full of trying to meet the expectations of her father. She had no control over her life, and for her, this was how life was supposed to be.
Kambili must Cross the Threshold after she arrives at Nsukka, her aunt’s home, and stay overnight at a place other than her home for the first time.

Aunty Ifeoma, wanting her niece and nephew, to experience something outside of her brother’s structured home, convinces Father, using religious reasons, to let Kambili and Jaja visit her home. Shocked by the schedules given to Kambili and Jaja to follow during the stay, Aunty Ifeoma takes them away and integrates them into her family, making them do shifts for chores. At a time when her cousin’s friends come over, Kambili “wanted to talk with them, to laugh with them so much...but my (her) lips held stubbornly together… and did not want to stutter, so I (she) started to cough and then ran out and into the toilet” (Adichie 141). Kambili, unfamiliar to the house full of light-hearted arguments and constant laughter, finds herself trapped inside her own emotions, incapable of expressing them. Just like any other hero enters a new place with different values, Aunty Ifeoma’s home had a set of completely different values, and Kambili initially has a hard time adapting to this

change.
Right when Kambili finally adjusts to Nsukka, she experiences The Ordeal and almost dies. After she is driven home by her Father, outraged that Kambili and Jaja were staying in the same home as late Papa-Nnukwu, because it was a sin to stay in the same house as a heathen even though he was Father’s biological dad. After he pours boiling water on their feet as a punishment, Kambili and Jaja are caught reminiscing over a painting of Papa-Nnukwu. Instead of automatically giving in like she used to, influence from the stay in Nsukka has her fighting back, never giving in, while Father beats her to the state that Kambili is rushed to the hospital, almost dead. Kambili realizes that she felt more comfortable with Aunty Ifeoma at this point, and even at the time for her discharge, “I (she) did not want to go home” (Adichie 215). Kambili’s ordeal lets her discover that her ordinary world was a dystopia and triggers her to live life in a way where she can make her own decisions.
In conclusion, Purple Hibiscus is a great model of a hero’s journey. Starting from Kambili’s quiet and controlled ordinary world transitioning into the threshold of a household full of laughter, completely foreign to her, to a realization of the flaws in her ordinary world, Purple Hibiscus ends with Kambili’s completion of the Hero’s Journey and her ability to reshape her broken family.