Purple Hibiscus Essay

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Purple Hibiscus In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel “Purple Hibiscus”, the character “Mama” or “Beatrice” is married to a man named “Eugene” more commonly known in the novel as “Papa”. The couple have two children named “Jaja” and “Kambili” (the main protagonist). Papa is brutal to his children and wife by subjecting them to frequent beatings for minor mishaps such as “eating during a fast” , “being in a house with a heathen” , or “being the second best student in their class”, mishaps like that are punished by beatings. It is odd that any wife would return after being brutally beaten every moment of their life when she doesn’t reach her husband’s standards. One possible reason is that Eugene is the richest man in Nigeria and that he can single handedly ensure a bright future for their children. This leads us to another point; Maybe Mama accepts the first point and takes the beatings as a price to pay for her children to be the best they can be. When Mama eventually kills Papa through poison it is because of what Papa has done to her and the children, almost killing Kambili, causing miscarriages for Mama, and attacking Jaja with a missal. This ends all tyranny in the family. The main reason Mama decides to stay with Eugene this long is because he is the richest man in Nigeria. This information is big enough for Mama to stay for her children’s sake. If Mama left Papa, how would she be able to pay for the ridiculous fees to go to top tier schools of Nigeria. Eugene is rich enough to pay for several hundreds of children! “Do you know that Eugene pays the school fees of up to a hundred of our people?!” (250 Adichie) This quote clearly states that Mama knows that Papa is a critical part of her children’s education. Papa may have loads of problems but it was crucial to be under Papa for her children to succeed. “People have problems, people make

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