Panel 4: Writers Addressing Race
Degree Program
Graduate
Major
English
Abstract
Adichie presents a complex reality of the Nigerian society, with particular focus on the Igbo, a tribal majority in the country. The novel details a woman’s ordeal and how she breaks free from her husband’s abusive grip, which does not spare their two children either. Mr. Eugene Achike, mostly referred to as Papa in the novel, sets the rules in the house and makes Beatrice Achike, also known as Mama, and their teenage children, Kambili and Jaja, follow them; regularly he uses physical torture to enforce the rules. While in public he fights for human rights and freedom of speech through his newspaper outfit, at home, he oppresses and bullies. This regime of abuse continues unchallenged until much later in the novel when Mama takes agency of her destiny and that of her children, a turning point that must be situated within traditional conception of womanhood and the multiplicity of identities that she embodies.
Start Date
8-2-2019 10:30 AM
End Date
8-2-2019 11:45 AM
Included in
Solidarity Between Women in Chimamanda Adichie's Purple Hibiscus
Adichie presents a complex reality of the Nigerian society, with particular focus on the Igbo, a tribal majority in the country. The novel details a woman’s ordeal and how she breaks free from her husband’s abusive grip, which does not spare their two children either. Mr. Eugene Achike, mostly referred to as Papa in the novel, sets the rules in the house and makes Beatrice Achike, also known as Mama, and their teenage children, Kambili and Jaja, follow them; regularly he uses physical torture to enforce the rules. While in public he fights for human rights and freedom of speech through his newspaper outfit, at home, he oppresses and bullies. This regime of abuse continues unchallenged until much later in the novel when Mama takes agency of her destiny and that of her children, a turning point that must be situated within traditional conception of womanhood and the multiplicity of identities that she embodies.