WF0095_U2.txt

Purple Hibiscus Analysis 

                    In the book “Purple Hibiscus” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Eugene can be characterized by the reader as stubborn, selfish, and discourteous to his own family. He mentally and physically abuses them to strengthen their devotion to his religion too. But how do his actions counteract his characteristics of being an abusive father to loving his family? The author makes Eugene seem to reflect on his past, his relationships he has with his family, and the reason he treats his family so harsh, only to show that he loves his family through his actions. 
                     Eugene may not be seen to act affectionate to his family, but he has his reasons of why he demands so much from his family. The relationship he has with his own father is unhealthy. He despises his father because of his devotion of his own religion instead of converting to be a Catholic, to the point where he does not let his own kids see their grandpa or give him small amounts of money where he can barely support himself with. Obviously, Eugene has no sympathy for his own father even when he was sick or when he died too. He blames his upbringing with his father to have an excuse of treating his family the way he does. Kambili speaks about Papa wanting her and Jaja to have a schedule, but when Kambili comes home not at the top of her class, Eugene sort of steps in and console her to do better. For example, he says “Why do you think I work so hard to give you and Jaja the best? You have to do something with all these privileges. Because God has given you much, he expects much from you. He expects perfection. I didn’t have a father who sent me to the best schools. My father spent his time worshiping gods of wood and stone. I would be nothing today but for the priests and sisters at the mission." (Pg 47) Eugene seems to blame the way he was raised to be hard on his own family. Kambili even speaks about how Eugene constantly takes his father’s life to compare it to a bad and sinful life. A life he does not want his family to live. She says, "I had heard this all before, how hard he had worked, how much the missionary Reverend Sisters and priests had taught him, things he would never have learned from his idol- worshiping father, my Papa-Nnukwu." (Pg 47) He exclaims how the missionary when he was young saved him and believes it can save the rest of the family if they keep up with his idealisms. 
                    Papa can be seen in some parts of the book showing some remorse to the way he treats his family. Sometimes his own acts of violence make him cry but he does not seem to regret doing it. When he is violent to punish his family, he thinks of it as a way to teach them a lesson. Correcting their sins and mistakes. When Papa was upset with Jaja and Kambili for staying with his father and not telling him, he wanted to show them, not punishment, but a lesson because he thought it is a righteous act. For example, he says “Kambili, you are precious.” His voice quavered now, like someone speaking at a funeral, choked with emotion. “You should strive for perfection. You should not see sin and walk right into it.” He lowered the kettle into the tub, tilted it toward my feet…He was crying now, tears streaming down his face… “That is what you do to yourself when you walk into sin. You burn your feet,” he said."(Pg 194) He uses his religion to feel justified for hurting his family, no matter how contradicting that is to his own religion, he still deems himself as virtuous.  When Papa even beat his wife for having his child, he asked his children to pray for her forgiveness. Papa says ““Your mother will be back tomorrow, about the time you get back from school. She will be fine,” he said. “Yes, Papa.” I looked away from his face, back at my books. He held my shoulders, rubbing them in gentle circular motions. “Stand up,” he said. I stood up and he hugged me, pressed me close so that I felt the beat of his heart under his soft chest."(Pg 34) Eugene does feel remorse when he beats his family, but he chooses to be naïve and think his is justified by his religion. 
                     The author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, made Eugene to be characterized as a depraved, religious man, but also make him seems well known and loved in his community. She explains her intentions of his characteristics.  Adichie was interviewed by Susan VanZanten for Image journal. She was asked about her first book “Purple Hibiscus” and the main character Eugene in the book. VanZanten asked, “In your first novel, Purple Hibiscus, the character Eugene is a strict, authoritative and domineering father who is a devout traditional Catholic. Some reviewers view him as a thoroughly evil character and the novel as a condemnation of Catholicism, but this seems overly simplistic. How do you see Eugene, and what is the importance of the kind of Catholicism lived out by his sister, Aunty Ifeoma?” She responds with “I didn’t intend for Purple Hibiscus to be an anti-Catholic book, and I think that there are alternatives to Eugene in the book. Aunty Ifeoma is the character I most admired. I am a very keen believer in the middle ground and the possibility of coexistence, and I am suspicious of extremes of either side. Eugene was not a character who I wanted to come across as a monster. I disliked what he did and didn’t like him, really, but I also felt that he somehow demanded our sympathy—a complicated sympathy, but still. And I had observed people like him. My father would tell me stories. In Igboland there was always the figure of the mean catechist, half-educated, again invested with the power of the church… and so they would cover their ignorance with silly violence and things that are not humane.” (VanZanten, S. n.d)  Adichie explains the relationship she wants the readers to have with the character Eugene, to feel solicitude for him because he has conditioned himself to be absent-minded of his own behavior but still despise him for his actions as well. The author also takes from personal experience of growing up in Nigeria of devoted mean in their religion that would abuse women too. 
                   Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie choose to portray Eugene as not only a selfish man that seems like he despises his family for not being devoted to their religion just by adding some key moments in the book to soften his character. Eugene seems like he is trying to correct his past by projecting it on to his family, for them to work towards perfection. In Eugene’s mind his is righteous for acting the way he does towards his family. The author reveals her intentions for Eugene’s character to make him have two sides of him that counterbalance with each other. That alleviates him as not always being stubborn but can be remorseful for his actions but has the mindset that he is doing right by helping his family learn in a violent way. 


                           Citations 
VanZanten, S. (n.d.). A Conversation with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Retrieved November 09, 2017, from https://imagejournal.org/article/conversation-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/