Purple Hibiscus Symbolism

In life, people have their own unique ways of coping with control. In the novel Purple Hibiscus, the author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, uses symbols and motifs to depict how a family handles their Father’s control and religion. Kambili and Jaja use the silence of their home and their eye language to deal with Papa’s horrifying punishments, while Mama uses her figurines to get away from her abusive husband. Papa believes that religion is the forefront of the family and uses it for his own corrupt ways. After being beaten by Papa for being disobedient when they visit Father Benedict, pregnant Mama, must goes to the hospital because she had a miscarriage. When she comes home Kambili wants to spend time with her, but Mama tells her to go upstairs and study: “Later, at dinner, Papa said we would recite sixteen different novenas. For Mama’s …show more content…
And on Sunday, the Sunday, the Sunday after Advent, we stayed back after Mass and started the novenas” (Adichie 35). Papa makes the family say the novenas, not to ask for forgiveness for him for beating Mama, but to ask G-d to forgive Mama for being rude. He uses religion, as a way of justifying the things he does by making the “bad” things that everyone else in the family does seem worthy of punishment. After Aunty Ifeoma comes to pick Kambili and Jaja to go her house, they go to Papa Nnukwu’s home to pick him up. Although they know that are not allowed to see Papa Nnukwu anymore, Kambili and Jaja do not say anything to their Aunt. As Aunty Ifeoma drives out of the compound, Papa Nnukwu looks back and says, “ ‘My son owns that house that can fit in every man in Abba, and yet many times I have nothing to put on my plate. I should not have let him follow those missionaries’ ” (83). Papa Nnukwu blames himself for letting his son go with the missionaries and converting to Christianity. By doing this, Papa Nnukwu also blames