In the novel Purple Hibiscus, Kambili is forced to stand in a tub as her father pours hot water on her feet initially burning them, putting her in horrible pain. He tries to justify this abuse as a lesson to teach his children as someone once taught him as a child. This time instead of getting her mind to forget it her father comforts her letting her know why he did this to her. Is it alright for a parent to abuse their child and then comfort them giving them some kind of reason to think that it was the moral thing to do? How can he have handled this lesson differently? At one point in the novel Papa take a belt and strikes his entire family,Mama, Kambili and Jaja because he believes the devil has caused them to sin. Papa has certain beliefs and uses different methods which turn out to become violent to help his family realize what they are doing right. Kambili never speaks about her abusive experience nor does she defend herself against her father. Does Papa mean well? Does he do this because it is in his nature? How does it affect his family?
A child is a joy, Papa abuses Mama and as a result kills their unborn baby. Jaja and Kambili seemed to be really excited about the baby in the novel and later are upset to find out the baby will not be born. How does a woman get over a normal miscarriage or abortion, let alone losing your baby to abuse? Throughout the novel, silence is a form of forgetting this abuse. Kambili is not rebellious and later in the novel, rebels by defending her grandfathers painting after her father wishes to destroy it. She accepts the abuse and defies her father by remaining on the floor as a way of protecting the painting. Kambili then thinks of her unborn sibling and tries to relate her position to the baby. Throughout the novel the characters tend to either rebel as a result of the abuse or accept it by ignoring it and keep it bottled up inside. To expand this discussion, we can think about protection. Both Kambili and Jaja want to protect the baby from their father, Kambili wants to protect the memory of her grandfather as well as herself by not talking back to her father and or speaking out about this abuse. Aunty Ifeoma tries to protect Mama after she learns that Mama lost her baby to domestic violence of Papa and so she asks her to stay with her for a couple of days in fear of further abuse. Mama wants to be free so she protects herself by poisoning Papa (murdering him) and Jaja protects Mama by taking the fall for Papa's murder. It seems like an on going thing. How can they change their former life? How can they function without Papa?
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