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What does the opening paragraph of purple Hibiscus hint to us about the story, its characters, and themes? Use the analytical verbs in red (see the attached PPT) to construct responses. One paragraph for each aspect (story, characters, and themes)

The reaction of Papa to Jaja being absent at the communion sets the tone of the series of events and the level of violence the audience should expect in the future. It also creates a tense mood when Papa is present because of his short temper and unpredictability of the severity of his actions. Jaja’s mutiny against his father, in the beginning, foreshadows to rifts between them as the reader progresses with the story. In the beginning, Papa is portrayed as an actively involved member of his society and is revealed to be a religious yet violent man. This is suggested through his throwing of the missal when he found out about Jaja missing the communion. This also represents Jaja as a rebellious child due to the fact that he missed out on the communion. Jaja's rebelliousness and Papa's commanding nature hints to the falling-out of their relationship as the story progresses. On the other hand, Kambili, the narrator of the story, is hinted to being a shy and unforthcoming character, as she doesn't say anything to support or oppose her father's actions. Kambili's mother is also evidently soft-spoken and powerless shown by her choice to remain silent regarding the incident. Overall the family is under a patriarchal rule of Papa.

The fact that Papa through his missal after finding out that Jaja hadn’t attended the communion presents Papa as a religious man. Due to the fact that the family is under a strict patriarchal rule of Papa it is quite evident that religion would play a major role in the novel. This also shows that domestic violence mostly conducted by Papa would also be a key theme in the plot. With reference to the above paragraph, it is clear that Papa and Jaja want to do things their own way and the similar fearful character of the women, Kambili and her mother hints that gender inequality might also be evident in throughout the book.

Comment on the allusion to Things Fall Apart

The book starts off with an allusion to Chinua Achebe’s, “Things Fall Apart” who was one of Chimamanda's influencers. Things Fall Apart portrays the story of the fall of Igbo leaders during the colonial period and when Christianity became popular in Nigeria. This could foreshadow to the audience that in Purple Hibiscus Religion and Violence will play a dominant role in the story. Chimamanda also alludes to Okonkwo through the use of Papa, who both have similar goals and but exist in different eras.

Discuss: What might a purple hibiscus be a metaphor for?

As the story progresses, it was evident that Jaja had shown great interest in the Purple Hibiscus in his aunt’s garden. We also find out that the day before Jaja missed the communion he saw the flower booming. In addition to that, Kambili also mentioned that she thought Jaja’s rebellious nature was set in motion from their Aunt’s Garden. Based on these points, it is apparent that the Purple Hibiscus was a symbol of Jaja’s journey to freedom from Papa’s oppression.

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Activity 2 Religious Hypocrisy-making notes Kioi and Jezebel and Ndugire and Hellen Christianity's lives can best be described by the expression ‘preaching water and drinking wine’ . In reference to Act 2, make notes of at least 4 things that they do or say that display them as hypocrites.

They are very rich people in the areas and instead they keep on preaching against eartlhy possessions yet they are not even true Christian. They don’t help the poor people and instead, they take advantage of the poor and just making themselves richer.
He also refers to the poor people by saying that workers are always “are like the ogres said to have two insatiable mouths” as they always ask for higher wages and pay rises. This shows that he has a negative attitude and does not reflect Christian values even though he claims to be Christian.
Kioi says that he and his companions work hard but the rich and the foreign take everything from them, yet we know that kioi is one of the richest people in the place.
Wangeci gets water from a pig sty when she was at the kioi family, showing that they are not really caring and welcoming.
Kioi pretends to promise helping kiguunda, but the truth is that he wants to take the land and the title deed away from him. He proposes to sell the land to the insecticide factory but even when the kiguunda refuses, he still proposes another idea which was to take a loan from the bank, using kiguunda’s title-deed as the collateral.

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Ikuua wa Nditika

Reliable- Kioi trusts and relies on him as a business partner. He believes Ikuua is good at what he does and has faith in him to look after his business and money, thus making him reliable.

He is loud and dissolute, and isn’t Christian.

Irreverent- He shows a lack of respect for people or things especially when it comes to only caring about the projects with the foreigners since it brings him good money, without caring about the harm it brings to the locals.

Boastful - on top of being irreverent, he mentions his wealth in unrelated contexts in conversations, and as a result comes out as if he is bragging. For example, when jezebel asks him to remain behind for tea, he laughs and then says he left his car and driver.

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ACTIVITY

Read the short extract from Chinua Achebe’s ‘English and the African writer’. Identify and summarize Achebe’s main idea in a paragraph.

I think the point that Achebe tries to make is that, there is no harm in using English while writing and but that the African writers if they can’t find the correct works to express their message, there is no point in altering the language and should rather use their own native language and bring out the message that they are trying to bring out.

Read the extract from ‘The language of African literature’. Discuss the extent to which Ngũgĩ justifies his decision to stop writing in English.

I think Ngug’i felt that him deciding to write in Gikuyu, his first language, was in rebellion to colonialism in that period of time. He might have felt that by writing in English he would be succumbing to the colonists and lose his identity. In my opinion the main reason is because of the ‘harmony’ from his work when using Gikuyu was much better and also because he felt connected to the language he decided to write in Gikuyu and stop writing in English.

Summarize the main differences between Ngugi and Achebe’s arguments about writing in English

Ngug’i argued that writing in your native language is a step towards regaining the lost cultural identity from the colonial countries.

Achebe’s goal by writing in English was that he wanted to create a ‘new’ but more African English.

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Trying to understand the events which took place during the authors childhood to get some context as a possible reason to her writing the way she did.

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Text Extracts and 10 points

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The theme of class struggle is brought out from the differences between the lifestyle of ‘higher class Kenyans’ such as Ndugire and the ‘peasant population’ such as Kiguunda. It also shows how the ‘higher class Kenyans’ support the Western people in taking away the little that the ‘peasant population’ have through the example of Ndugire associating and accompanying Ahab Kinoi to Kiguunda’s house and attempting to convert Kiguunda and his family into Christians. This shows how the ‘higher class Kenyans’ are greedy and have forgotten their roots and culture and have embraced the Western culture in contrast to the ‘peasant population’, most of which have stuck to their roots and continue to struggle against this inequality of classes, such as Gicaamba.

Another equally important theme of gender was brought out by Ngugi. Gathoni, in this play, represents the modern woman who wishes to marry at her will and wants to buy beauty items. On the other hand, the stereotype that a man is the house’s head is brought out through the fact that the women in this play don’t talk a lot and when they do talk, it doesn’t relate to fighting against the Western people. For example when Wangeci wanted to go to Ahab Kinoi’s house she had just suggested the idea, but it was Kiguunda that had made the decision.It is the males such as Kiguunda and Gicaamba that decide on how they plan to overcome their ongoing struggles.

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I think Ngug’i felt that him deciding to write in Gikuyu, his first language, was in rebellion to colonialism in that period of time. He might have felt that by writing in English he would be succumbing to the colonists and lose his identity. In my opinion the main reason is because of the ‘harmony’ from his work when using Gikuyu was much better and also because he felt connected to the language he decided to write in Gikuyu and stop writing in English.

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Ngugi wa Thiong’o is a Kenyan writer who was once considered East Africa’s leading novelist and is currently a Professor at the University of California.

Weep Not, Child - about a Kikuyu family during the struggle for Kenyan Independence and the time of the Mau Mau Rebellion.

A Grain of Wheat - it weaves many stories set during the state of emergency in Kenya. The main plot is around Mugo and how preparations in his village are taking place for Kenya’s independence day.

The River Between - this book tells the story of how the two neighbouring villages separated in Kenya due to their differences in faith in the 20th century. It also revolves around Waiyaki who aimed to reunite these 2 villages.

Petals of Blood - this novel focuses on three men and a woman and the effects of Mau Mau on their families.

Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Ngugi wa Mirii both were in Kenya when Kenya got independence and so I Will Marry When I Want examines the society and the politics in post colonial Kenya through what the writers experienced.

The context of the authors influenced the text because the text was written from the perspective of a common Kenyan citizen in the post colonial period and these two authors would have experienced the post colonial period personally and so they would have had their own personal inputs.

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Religion is the alcohol of the soul! / Religion is the poison of the mind!
He uses this to say that religion allows men into being complacent with their mean existence, or can be used to make them feel guilty about pushing back against it.

Religious identification without adherence to religious principles
Kĩoi and his allies' embrace of Christianity ironically ignores all of the teachings of Jesus concerning the poor inheriting the earth and rich men having difficulty entering heaven.

The mutual frustration of Kĩoi and Gĩcaamba with the Kenyan church
Both Kĩoi and Gĩcaamba express frustration with Kenyan churches, but, ironically, for opposing reasons: the former sees them as places where revolutionary sentiment may flourish, whereas the latter sees them as sites of capitulation and accommodation to the elites and the whites.

The foreshadowing and allusion of Ahab and Jezebel takes their land  which is a sin, and they claim that they are so holy; yet their greed is a hindrance to spirituality.

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DATM really shows us that in
today’s ‘progressive’ society
we haven't been able to
overcome this huge gender
equality issue and women
are still inferior to men.

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Grace Nichols' Fat Black Woman's Poems-->
In my opinion this quote
really sums up what the
overall message of Grace
Nichols’s was. She knew that
people were judging her but
she was satisfied with the
way she looked and knew
there was nothing much she
could do to change that fact
and moved on with her life. I
think that at times I also think
about what other people will
think if I do something and
base some decisions on what
they would think but this
poem collection has really
opened my eyes and taught
me that I should be fine with
who I am and not change for
the crowd.