Purple Hibiscus & Perfection

In “Purple Hibiscus,” author Chinamanda Ngogi Adichio paints a tale about one nigerian family and their hardships when the Nigerian government is overthrown by the military. Although to members of the congregation and every one else outside of the family, Papa seems to be the ideal man, generous and thoughtful, but with his family he is anything but. He is extremely strict and won’t except anything short of perfection. For example, his daughter Kambili received her report card from school and was second in her class. Any parent would be proud of that fact, but he was disappointed that she couldn’t do better. This is a fifteen year old girl and he expects her to be perfect, but that is something that is impossible.
Perfection. That is what I would like to discuss. Papa got mad at Kambili one time for being a few minutes late to get to the car after school and he slapped her in the face because of it. A man who punishes his kids for not being perfect certainly is not perfect himself. If he was perfect then her wouldn’t hit them or get angry over something as silly as being a few minutes late. Because of his strict, demanding ways, his children don’t seem to be able to have a normal adolecence. They do not have time to socialize with their peers because they are so afraid to make him mad. Their schedules are so strict that they don’t have any real time to do anything for themselves. How are they supposed to grow and develop to their full potential (perfection) if they can never just experience life in a less controlled environment. I feel that Papa is just way to strict. And I know that I’m reprating myself, however I really feel that that is the case. I don’t see how Kambili and Jaja are able to tolerate him. Actually,we don’t learn much about Mama, except for the fact that she has had many miscarriges and has another one during the early aprt of the novel. But I wonder what all of that banging was right before she was carried out to go to the hospital. I wonder if Papa was beating her. I mean he does seem like he could be the type and that would make sense why he hasn’t left her despite the fact that she can’t seem to havve any more children.

Father Tyrant

There is significance in the fact that our narrator is Kambili, a 15-year old child. The first reason that seems to stand out to me is that fact that it echoes the ideas of colonialism and imperialism that we've been talking about in class. The fact that our narrator is a young girl, living in her house with her parents who run her life ( as most children should), relates very much to the presence of the white man, almost as a parent, in Africa throughout the book. This relationship with the other characters in the book just highlights the ongoing situation in the background, obviously done on purpose.

It's interesting to note how Kambili will sometimes justify her father's actions or almost agree with him, even if they have negative conotations for her. On pages 41 to 42 we see this. Kambili's father tells her that she had the second highest grades in the class because she "chose to" and didn't put in enough work. This is suppossed to make Kambili feel bad. A normal parent would be happy with his daughter's stellar performance, but Kambili's father has to nit-pick. The fact that Kambili feels bad, or even worse, guilty, shows her relation with her tyranic father. It's so weird, but happens so often, that people will see their tyrant as a good thing and a positive person, because they simply don't know any better. This relationship exists to compare and contrast with Africa's situation, which we will probably learn more about during the following week.