Chapter I

Introduction

Literature is a work of art that is spoken or written. The term literature is derived from the

Latin term ‘littera’ which means writing formed by words. It encompasses various genres of

creative writing which includes poetry, fiction and non-fiction in forms of essays, novels and

short stories, journals, dramas and songs. It is a mirror that reflects humans’ life. Literature

when considered as a form of art can be defined as words put together to induce pleasure. But

literature not only entertains but also instructs. It is a tool to define, analyze and criticize a

society. Literature branches itself to the snow covered peaks of Russia to the hot sand dunes

of Sahara and the deep trenches of the Pacific ocean. Thus literature is well spread across the

globe to include different kinds like English literature, American and Canadian literature,

Australian literature, Indian English literature, African literature etc.

Nigerian literature is a branch of African literature that mainly focuses on writings and

writers from Nigeria written in either English or any Afro-Asiatic language that discusses

Nigerian issues. Nigerian literature in English is any piece of creative writing that is written

by a Nigerian for another Nigerian to suggest the problems of country, which is written in

English.

There are four phases in Nigerian literature. They are oral literature, pre-colonial literature,

colonial literature and postcolonial literature. Africa has a huge collection of oral literature

reiterating the African ancestry and tales of animals. Most of them were based on classic

myths of Africa which were recorded in the later years. Pre-literate Africa has a rich history

of oral literature while it was gently embraced by the traditional rulers and common people of

that time period. Verbal tales served as an important form of storing ancestral experiences
and beliefs. Oral literature is still being preserved by some artists who retell tales from the

rich history of Africa which is sometimes performed as dramas in street theaters.

Pre-colonial literature is a collection of trickster stories with animals as characters. A

small animal uses its genius to play a trick on larger animals and escape them. The Yoruba

tribe of the sub Saharan ethnic group inhabits the lands of Nigeria. They make about 15 % of

country’s population. The Yoruba people invented one of the famous African festivals called

the masquerades. Each tribe had a trickster animal to be the hero of their literature and

tortoise was the Yoruba’s. These literatures were many manuscripts scattered over the

regions of Africa. These materials cover a wide array of topics, including astronomy, poetry,

law, history, faith, politics, and philosophy of the ancient Nigerians. One of the best known

books of this literature was the Book of Kings.

Colonial literature as the name suggests is the literature of colonial era in the country

between the World War I and African independence. This was the time when the African

people was introduced to the new mode of communication, the English language.

Colonialism of Africa by the French and the British influenced many people to take up

foreign languages as their tool of expression. Stories lost all its fantasy and literature in

Africa changed forever. The ideas of freedom, liberalism, independence, corruption of

government and other important social issues started catching the attention of people. Writers

took up these revolutionary ideas and wrote books paving the way for the freedom of the

nation. Nègritude among the African people gained importance in this period. Nègritude is a

literary Critique theory that gained shaped in the francophone regions. Writers like Paulette

Nardal, Jeanne Nardal, Aimé Cesaire and Leon Damas gained recognition. Nègritude writers

disavowed colonialism and argued for the importance of Pan-African sense of being black.

Embracing their national identity and their blackness became the spirit of the age. The

important works of the age are slave narratives such as The Interesting Narrative of The Life
of Olaudah Equiano. The first African novel to reach worldwide recognition was Things Fall

Apart written by Chinua Achebe. It discusses the effect of colonialism in their conservative

homeland.

With their newfound independence and increase in liberation and literacy in Nigeria,

postcolonial literature records the conflicts between traditionalism and modernity, newly

introduced Christian culture and the traditional Igbo culture, development of the country and

self-reliant nature of the conservative African people. Other general themes of the works

include social problems like corruption, economic difficulties, oppression and fixing the roles

and rights of women in the society. After independence, Nigeria became a land of internal

conflicts and public assassinations which ingrained fear in the minds of people. Writers use

their literary license to make the crisis of the country come out to the world.

Innumerable assassinations and public trails dampened the spirit of the age and created the

Biafra. The Biafra simply means born in an assassination and raised in starvation. It caused

massive genocide of the African masses, half of them being children. Authors and journalists

where the ones who turned the world’s eyes upon the pitiable state of Africa. Apart from

social insecurities, the masses are very patriarchal and conservative. Families drift apart due

to wars and internal problems. Abusive and slave mindedness of the Nigerian people is hard

to erase as it was etched in their hearts long before. Nigerians suffer from abuses even in their

own house and accept it as a part of their culture. Adichie in her novel Purple Hibiscus

addresses the adverse effects of abuse.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in the town of Enugu in the country of Nigeria.

She is the fifth of six kids in a traditional Igbo Nigerian family. She was raised within the

university city of Nsukka in Enugu state. Her father, James Nwoye Adichie (1932-2020),

worked as an academic of statistics at the University of African country. Her mother, Grace
Ifeoma (1942-2021) was the university's initial feminine registrar. The family lost almost

everything during the Nigerian Civil War. Loss was huge including each of maternal and

parental grandfathers. Her family's ancestral village is in Abba in Anambra State.

Adichie completed her education at the University of Federal Republic of Nigeria,

Nsukka, where she received many tutorial prizes. She studied medicine and pharmacy at the

University of Federal Republic of Nigeria for a year and a half. During her years of

university education, she served as the editor for The Compass, a magazine published by

university's Catholic medical students. At the age of 19, Adichie left Federal Republic of

Nigeria for the review communications and social science at Drexel University in metropolis,

Pennsylvania. She was awarded a 2011-2012 fellowship by the Radcliffe Institute for

Advanced Study, Harvard.

Adichie is a Catholic and was raised Catholic a child, though her views, especially those

on feminism, sometimes do conflict with her religion. At a 2017 event at Georgetown

University, she stated that religion "is not a women-friendly institution" and "has been used

to justify oppressions that are based on the idea that women are not equal human

beings. Adichie has always valued the togetherness of religion and bringing peace between

conflicting ones. She has called for Christian and Muslim leaders in Nigeria to preach

messages peace and togetherness. Having previously identified as agnostic while raising her

daughter Catholic, she has also identified as culturally Catholic.

Race has always played a major role in the life of a person of colour. But Adichie

experienced this problem much later in her life than other people. She spent most of her

youth in Nigeria and never experienced an issue of race. It was when she arrived in the

United States for college did she experience racism. There were problems accommodating
herself in the American culture as an African in America. She writes about how she had to

learn and accustom herself to the issue of racism, in detail, in her book Americanah.

LGBTQ+ issues in today’s world is a major phenomenon. Many culturally bound

countries oppose same sex relationships and have laws declaring it a crime in many. Adichie

opposes such laws. She openly stands in support of the LGBTQ+ community. In 2014, when

Nigeria passed an anti-homosexuality bill, she was among the Nigerian writers who objected

to the law, calling it unconstitutional and “a strange priority to a country with so many real

problems,” “stating that a crime is a crime for a reason because a crime has victims, and that

since consensual homosexual conduct between adults does not constitute a crime, the law is

unjust.”

Adichie was vastly criticized as ‘trans phobic’ for her quote “my feeling is trans women

are trans women.” Adichie later further clarified her statement, writing "that there is a

distinction between women born female and women who transition, without elevating one or

the other, which was my point. I have and will continue to stand up for the rights of

transgender people.”

“Reading Achebe gave me permission to write about my world.”, says Adichie. She

idolizes the internationally acclaimed Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe. She grew up in a house

he previously lived and started reading his books at an young and grasping age of ten. She

considers Achebe as her role model for introducing her to the magical world of literature.

Her writings as a young girl were premature and completely influenced by white people, their

land and culture. Reading Achebe introduced her to the ancestral history of Africa and made

her feel as if she lived in a world of their great grandparents. She later realized how important

it was to read about one’s own history. She in her later years when she took her writing

carrier seriously, she was in the States. She chose English to be the right language to
propagate her views on her homeland. This novel Purple Hibiscus was born out of her

longing for home. She wanted to write about colonialism, which she thinks is imbibed on

every Nigerians' life and will be reflected in their works naturally. Adichie is curious about

religion and was searching God for a period of time in her life. She always wanted to define

the indefinable God which resulted in the creation of a character who proves his Christianity

by condemning his past. Eugene was not a monster yet did horrible things. She brings out

people’s blindness in religion through Eugene’s character.

The novel Purple Hibiscus is set in postcolonial Nigeria, a country plagued with political

insecurity and economic depression. Nigeria in these postcolonial years is under serious

threat of fragmentation due to numerous civil wars that bedevil the nation round the clock.

Terrible assassinations and massacres flood the southern parts of Nigeria which is the main

cause of diseases and starvation. This agonizing state of the country has dwindled the

development of the country pulling it to the deep ravine of insecurity, corruption and

misinformation of a great deal of matters including transparency of the government,

education and religion. These misconceptions of Nigerian people are the essence of the novel

Purple Hibiscus.

The central character of the novel is Kambili Achike, a girl of fifteen whose life covers

most of the novel. Kambili is from a wealthy family heavily influenced by her devoutly

Catholic father, Eugene. Eugene is extremely devoted to the so called conception of God and

is misguided into the black hole of religious fallacy. He, as an upright man in a corrupt state

and a staunch Catholic in a country filled with traditional religions leads a life of

contradictions. Apart from being a religious zealot, Eugene is a fierce character in the Achike

household. He makes sure that everyone in the family practices his misinformed Catholicism

and bends to his rules. When a mistake is committed, Eugene is very particular about

demolishing such a blunder in the future by brutally punishing his wife and children.
Beatrice, Kambili’s mother suffers from two miscarriages as a result of continuous corporal

punishments. Inspite of Eugene’s abusive character, Kambili’s reverence for her father

increases on witnessing his father to be an ethical and highly respected man in the society.

The story describes Kambili’s growth into maturity and subsequently the annihilation of

Achike family due to the result of Eugene’s abuse and external problems such as civil war in

the country. Kambili’s life began to change starting from the events following their visit to

their hometown, Abba. She starts getting doubts about her father’s idea of equalling

traditionalism with paganism when she searches the signs of Godlessness in her grandfather

and finds none. Her father’s words are challenged for truth for the first time in Kambili’s life

when Aunty Ifeoma explains about what it means to be conservative. Her experiences in

Abba, provokes her curiosity which had never happened to her in the past. Kambili’s life

takes a different turn when she visits the traditional Igbo festival and her eventual sojourn in

her aunt’s house in Nsukka. At her aunt’s house, she and her brother Jaja seem to be an

oddity. Loads of speech, laughter and warmth contradicted the silence and coldness in their

own house in Enugu. Kambili finds it difficult to amalgamate with her new environment

filled with freedom and love. It was a different kind of affection that she feels at her aunt’s.

Life in Nsukka changes Kambili’s perspective of her life and world completely. She feels

what it feels like to be in love when she is attracted towards a young priest named Father

Amadi. She feels feminine for the first time in her life and realizes gender consciousness.

Meanwhile in Enugu, government collapses and Eugene’s press is attacked. The death of his

faithful friend and Editor Ade Coker shakes Eugene. Politics change in Nigeria and an

imperial military government comes into power. This deteriorates Eugene’s business and he

becomes more violent that once he whips his wife out of sheer rage which causes her second

miscarriage. Jaja refuses to take in anymore of his father’s meaningless rules in the name of

God and starts opposing Eugene silently. Things turn worse in the house when Kambili and
Jaja are caught secretly staring at a painting of their late heathen grandfather. Kambili gets

terribly lashed and heavily injured for trying to protect the picture and her aunt fearing

Eugene’s animal like behaviour to affect the children, they are taken to Nsukka. Kambili

reveals her love for Father Amadi but gets gently refused. That’s when she comes to know

her life will never be same again. Beatrice raged by Eugene’s abusive behaviour stops

holding back her feelings and poisons Eugene. Jaja takes in the blame and goes to prison. The

novels comes to an end after three years, a period where everything is changed. Kambili

becomes a confident and bold adult of eighteen and Jaja, even more hardened by his

experience is about to be released from the prison. Their mother, Beatrice on the other hand

completely disintegrates psychologically to a great degree reflecting upon their past

memories. Their aunt and cousins move to the states as Aunty Ifeoma is unjustly removed

from her job as a professor in the university. The story concludes with a positive note from

Kambili, hoping for their futures to be bright and happy.

 Chapter II

A Study of Child Psychology in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus

Child psychology also known as child development is the analysis of subconscious and

conscious mind of a child from its prenatal development to adolescence. It is a vast topic that

deals with the physical, mental, emotional and social development of a child. It involves

continuous observation and evaluation of a child’s behaviour and its response to the

environment.

Childhood composes the major part of human life. Early experiences and memories of a

person affects them throughout their lifetime and hence a healthy development of psyche is

vital. This field of study is important for the examination of a child’s emotional and physical

hygiene and balance. It plays a crucial role in analyzing a child’s mind to get better

understanding of the child’s behavior. This helps us to diagnose a child’s psychological or

social problems.
 There are various internal as well as external factors that influence a child’s growth and

development. Growth is synonymous with the increase in physical features like height,

weight etc., whereas development means the qualitative increase of a child’s capacity and

skills. Some of the elements that affect child’s psychological growth and development are

heredity, surroundings, health, familial influence, socio-economic issues and the type of

experiences that a child undergoes.

Physical characteristics and intellect are transmitted through genes for generations. These

innate characters of a child impact the way a child behaves. Similarly the surroundings or

environment in which a child is brought up affects the stimulations both of psychological and

societal nature which are pivotal for an effective upbringing of the child. Engaging children

in physical activities helps in keeping them physically and mentally fit. As the saying goes “

Joyfulness is half your health ”, healthy nurturing influences a child’s growth and

development. As family is the first place where the child gets to know about people, it is the

origin of the child’s behavior, mentality and various other skills. Hence family has a deep-

rooted influence on the psychological growth and social bonding of the child. Society also

plays an important part in the development of a child’s mind.

Many of these factors aren’t completely controllable and each child has a different way of

working things out. This leads to the phenomenon that every child is unique. Children whose

lives are marred by the evils of the society find it difficult to establish social bonding and

better understanding of humankind. Growing in a tranquil environment helps the child to

develop inner peace which the child will recreate as an adult, hence results in creating a better

society.

There are certain factors that have a powerful negative impact on a child’s mind. These

may arise from various reasons such as the unpleasant experiences of the child’s past, neglect
and abusive parenting. Adverse experiences such as loss, being a witness or victim of abuse

and violence that are etched in a child’s mind can cause developmental issues.

Unpleasant memories and circumstances that are encountered by children greatly affect

the child’s psyche and making them either a victim or a victimizer. This in turn causes a

larger problem called chain of abuse that is prevalent in the society. Although family is the

basic source of security and protection for children sometimes the situations are

contradictory. Unhealthy relationships with parents can affect the child lifelong.

Abuse and neglect are the major developmental consequences for growing children.

Subjecting children to physical and mental abuse retards their cognitive and social

development. Apart from direct violence, active hostility and constant menacing of physical

punishment are considered as intrusions of the child’s mind which hinders the child’s natural

way of thinking and accomplishing things. Neglecting a child physically or emotionally

makes them feel outcast and despondent which results in depression and a pessimistic attitude

for the rest of their life.

Emotional negligence is a serious issue which is the main reason for most of the suicides.

Children with troublesome childhood are forced to become either submissive or arrogant

which creates an irrational fear and a sense of insecurity about their own lives. These children

who face parental abuse, social violence and emotional negligence are those who resort to

substance abuse and violence later in their life.

Child abuse is the harming, ill treatment or neglect of a child physically, mentally,

emotionally or socially which causes psychological trauma and hinders the child’s

development. It also includes threatening and unappreciated advancements towards children.

Child abuse takes many forms such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse,

medical abuse and neglect.

 Hurting a child physically or putting their life at risk intentionally comes under physical

abuse. Sexual advancements towards children have become a major problem in the society.

This creates fear, diffidence and meekness in the child’s character. False information about

illness and unnecessary prescription of medicine that can cause developmental issues are

categorized as medical abuse. Verbal abuse and dwindling the child’s self-esteem, belittling

the child’s wishes and ambitions can cause emotional disturbance which is also a

developmental crisis. The novel of interest, Purple Hibiscus brings out the adverse effects on

a child due to parental abuse.

Purple Hibiscus is a novel of Nigerian literature written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in

2003. This novel follows the journey of a fifteen year old girl named Kambili through her

various phases of life where she is introduced to new experiences which entangle her in fear,

laughter, diffidence, embarrassment, delusion and love and how she ultimately shatters the

invisible boundaries that crushed her in the past and realizes her true self.

The family of four consisting of Eugene Achike, called papa (father), Beatrice Achike

referred to as mama (mother), Jaja, the brother and the narrator and protagonist Kambili lives

in Enugu, Nigeria. Eugene, a stern and religious zealot controls his children’s life, drawing

schedules for every minute of their life. He reasons out his behaviour in the name of God and

justifies his blind faith to be the call of God and way to serve God. He aggressively behaves

towards his wife and children not in the pretext of hurting them but claims to teach the way of

God through corporal punishment and physical abuse. This behaviour of Eugene makes his

children develop irrational fear for their father and unexplainable fright towards the

conceived God. Eugene, in the name of teaching humble behaviour infuses an inferiority

complex in the minds of his children. He also makes the children believe in blind faith as his

and this fallacious upbringing ingrains the children’s reverence for their father. This makes

the children believe that their father is the ideal man and starts to idolize him. Hence, the
children develop a sense of acceptance towards the physical and mental abuse without

questioning the truth of their father’s statement. This makes the children to behave like

machines with neither questions nor emotions. They avoid reasons and prefer their own

meanings for all that happens in and around them. Their only concern is to act as God’s child

thereby pleasing their father. Such children who live under threat of constant observation and

physical punishment lose their sense of freedom and identity in thought and action.

In the novel Purple Hibiscus, Kambili faces many physical abuses that bring about

damaging psychological effects on her development. The abuse she takes in and accepts as a

form of a lesson is due to the fact that she idolizes the abuser, her father Eugene. She thinks

and behaves in a way that her father is happy with her conduct. Certain instances in the novel

suggest this idea. ‘ “God will deliver us”, I said, knowing Papa would like my saying

that.’(PH , p.26). Here Kambili is forced by her subconscious mind to say something that

makes her father happy and as soon as she says so, her father smiles and touches her hand

which feels like a reward for her. Kambili's subconscious is etched with her father’s

principles that she at certain instances talks like her father or utters words that will please him

even though he isn’t at a hearing distance. Yet another instance where Kambili’s

temperament reveals itself as Eugene’s daughter is when she instinctively delivers to Aunty

Ifeoma of their grandfather’s religion. ‘ “ Because Papa-Nnukwu is a pagan.” Papa would be

proud that I had said that.’ (PH , p. 81). Even after Aunty Ifeoma contrasts traditionalist and

pagans, Kambili is unable to accept the truth as it proves her father’s words fallacious. She is

trained to think highly of her father, which is evident in her manner of narration. She avoids

to know the truth behind the rules and even if the truth is reasoned out and justified right

before her eyes, she refuses to take them in and is left in a dilemma.

She is guided by the same blind faith as of her father which has been imbued in her even

as a child. Truth is manipulated and brainwashed into her which becomes hard to let go.
When she visits her grandfather, whom according to her father is a heathen and will go to hell

for being a traditionalist, to her as a young girl her natural sense of curiosity is evoked and

she searches the ‘signs of difference, of Godlessness.’ And even though she doesn’t find any,

she convinces herself thinking ‘I was sure they were there somewhere. They had to be.’ (PH ,

p.63).

Kambili’s upbringing is drenched in her father’s own set of principles for attaining his so

called godliness. She is made to believe that colonial people are the best and their ways of

loving and following God are always faultless. These misconceptions such as her own

Nigerian creed is faulty in the pursuit of God and the existence of the perceived God is

embedded into her which comes out in the novel through her words like ‘Papa said that the

parish priest in Abba was not spiritual enough. That was the problem with our people, Papa

told us, our priorities were wrong . . . . You would never see white people doing that.’ (PH ,

p.104). Thus misinformation of religion meddle her thought process and ceases her to come

out of the superstitious beliefs even after she feels what her father said might be wrong. She

chooses her father’s opinion rather than her own which is the result of shadowed parenting

where children are raised under the parents complete supervision and are never allowed to

make decisions on their own. This curbs their reasoning and problem solving skills.

Accepting abuse for the sake of culture, in the name of God and many other

misapprehensions are the main reasons for taking in abuse even if the abuse is identified. This

is an even bigger problem in the case of children, where they have none but to bank on their

abusive parents and accept the abuse or punishment they are imposed upon.

Idolizing the victimizer and being manipulated by the same, Kambili is pushed to a state

of acceptance of whatever is being done to her in the name of God. This is how she

voluntarily allows to be physically punished and mentally abused by Eugene, for the sake of
seeking redemption for her petty crimes. She doesn’t even resist the abuse but rather readily

accepts it, which she thinks is the way to seek her father’s love.

Physical punishments are normally thought as the discipline dispensers. Children are

punished in the hope that the punished behaviour doesn’t occur again. But harsh corporal

punishments and verbal abuse can cause irrational fear for the abuser and the child is at the

constant risk of being abused. This causes psychological trauma which is a issue that retards

mental development of children. Strong punishers induce aggression in the minds of children

which the children are most likely to imitate when they find someone submissive. There are

cases when the punisher is much in relation to punishment rather than infusing a parental

care. In such instances, children fear the punisher and tries to avoid interaction with them.

Such is the case with Kambili. She comes to a state where she is comfortable with the cane

rather than her father’s angry expression. When Kambili breaks the Eucharist fast, Eugene is

raged on her for sinning against God and lashes her and the family. Neither she nor her

mother or her brother who don’t have anything to do with the problem, resist Eugene. This

shows their acceptance towards abusive behaviour which is the result of continuous abuse.

Silence is how acceptance of abuse keeps on continuing. Avoiding to acknowledge the

abuse that happens in one’s presence and maintaining silence is the fertilizer for abuses.

When Eugene punishes Kambili, Jaja or Mama, others in the house never talk about the

violence. Kambili came to know that her mother was injured by her father whenever she

found the étagère polished. Even when her mother is bleeding and taken to the hospital, they

never talk about her or ask what happened to her. All that the children do is wipe the blood

off and pray for Mama to be forgiven as insisted by their father. This is the same case when

Eugene pours hot water onto Kambili’s feet for lying about their grandfather’s stay at their

aunt’s house. She mentions the silence after the incident by describing Jaja’s and her

punishment ‘He wore thick socks and placed his feet gingerly one after the other, as I did.
But we did not talk about our padded feet.’ ( PH , p.197). She gives us the house’s scenario,

where they talked with spirits not words. Such is how they are terrified of Eugene.

Physical abuse leads to emotional instability and causes psychological disorders in

children. Psychological trauma can impair growth and development of a child. It affects the

mind in both direct and indirect ways. Maltreatment of children in their early ages affects

their brain development and it is reflected on their behaviour during adolescence period. Fear,

loneliness and inability to trust anyone is induced in an abused child which results in

problems in the child’s conduct and all through their life time. The child will perceive the

world through an victim’s point of view and hence will rarely mingle with anyone easily.

Witnessing abuse is yet another issue that can hinder the development of the child.

Children when they witness abuse often as they grow up, become an abuser later in their life.

This have been proved through quite a lot of research. Television programs that telecast

violence, when seen by little children imbibe violence in their thought process and is seen to

imitate it with almost anyone or anything nearby the child. Hence, witnessing or being a

victim of physical or metal abuse causes serious developmental issues in children.

Psychological disorders include overthinking, nightmares, trepidation of being abused

constantly, aggression and horror grip the children.

Developmental issues in children include behavioral difficulties, trouble in social bonding

and affects cognitive and language development. Behaviour as defined in psychology means

an organism’s activities in response to internal and external stimuli. This response is solely

dependent on what the child takes in from any situation or individual. When this external

factor is damaging, the response to it will be disturbed and this results in behavioral problems

in children. Children are the epitome of love and affection and they need to treated in a
smooth and caring manner. Lack of this care and resorting to punishments makes the children

to go against the rules and meddles their behavioral pattern.

The degree to which an individual is integrated into the society is called social bonding.

Development of any interpersonal relationship begins with trust. Abuse shrinks the amount of

trust a child has with other people. Lack of trust results in deprivation of any association

hence pushing the children to loneliness. Social bonding is important as it impacts one’s

mental emotional and physical well-being. It is essential for children to befriend other

children as it comes a long way, all through their life. Kambili finds it hard to associate with

anyone in the school partly due to her inferiority complex which other children think is due to

her social status. The other reason she is isolated in school is that she never gets anytime to

talk with other children as she has to strictly follow her father’s time table. She has no friends

to share her feelings this makes her stressed mentally. Talking out loud one’s problems is the

best way to solve it but Kambili doesn’t have a chance to do so. When she learns about her

mother’s miscarriage her memory is incised with images of blood. Her inability to speak her

mind to anyone keeps her wallowing in this terrible memory which disturbs her studies. ‘The

black type blurred, the letters swimming into one another, and then changed to a bright red,

the red of fresh blood. The blood was watery, flowing from Mama, flowing from my eyes. ’

(PH , P.35).

Cognitive development in a child is the ability to reason out and solve problems. This

development happens in two stages from ages 6 to 12 and ages 12 to 18. Development from 6

to 12 years is elementary. Children in ages 6 to 12 develop an ability to think in factual and

fixed way. They observe their surroundings and take in the process of separating, combining,

and organizing ideas and objects. The second stage of cognitive development is much more

complex and it brings in formal logical thinking and reasoning. This development includes

thinking of various possibilities, forming creative ideas and questioning, considering multiple
points of view and being aware of the thought process. This is the period when a child

changes its general view of the world to its own perception of the world. It is the time when

creativity blooms and an urge for the freedom of expression springs up. Abusive or shadowed

parenting intervening this developmental process by bringing in the abuser’s perspective of

the world to replaces it with that of the child. Thus abused children lose their ability to take

their own decisions and thinking out of the box. Kambili, to an extent is unable to accept her

own decisions and believe her own ideas, due to her father’s doting nature. This engenders

Kambili to shut down herself from any form of expression either through speech or laughter.

One of the main reasons why language development is hindered is the due to the lack of

use of language. Language is tool of expression. Kambili, Jaja and their mother are denied

from any form of expression I their house. They scarcely talk to each other and their only

words are that of prayer, thanking the dad or a very formal rapport with no emotions between

the siblings. ‘We did that often, asking each other questions whose answers we already knew.

Perhaps it was so that we would not ask the other questions, the ones whose answers we did

not want to know.’ (PH , P.23). This way conversation in the Achike household was limited.

There was no expression but rather vague words of no importance. This results in Kambili’s

stuttering problem she is nervous to hide when to speaks to other children in her class.

Language development and literary development are crucial for any child as it helps in

expressing their emotions, feelings and pains to make oneself understandable to other people.

Abuse and neglect of children can cause developmental delays and prolong emotional

disabilities. Children are little bags of sunshine who needs proper nurturing for a perfect

development of their body and mind. Abuse in any form however minimal the degree of

abuse may be, can hurt children and haunt them for their lifetime.
 Kambili is being abused his idol like father Eugene for whom she has irrefutable

respect. Eugene is a man of contradictions who himself is a victim of his insecurities which

he converts into an abusive power to control the lives of his wife and children.

When an ethnic group that resides in its original location, practices a traditional culture,

and speaks a minority language, there will be another culture to pervade the vacuum. In this

novel Purple Hibiscus, Eugene Achike takes the role of replacing the native culture with the

colonial culture that seized it. Eugene is the quintessential colonizer, seeking to establish

order as he does to his family. He accepts the western values and tries to adapt to the

European religion. He also seeks a way to force the same values onto his children and wife.

Eugene makes his family follow western culture and pretends that his children’s needs are

the exact same as his own needs. He does not have his children’s best interest at heart and

doesn’t realize that they may have unique needs appropriate to their circumstances. Eugene

assumes that his own principles are more important than anyone else’s, specifically his

children. Eugene even controls the small-scale details of their lives, he schedules their each

and every minute of every day thus it is presupposed that Eugene will surely lead his

children’s future.

Eugene is extremely violent to his family, in the pretext of religion. He even stands in the

way of Kambili’s social life by interfering in every decision of hers, rather than allowing her

to socialize with her other classmates. On an occasion Kambili’s takes a bit more time than

usual to get to the vehicle. ‘Papa slapped my left and right cheeks at the same time, so his

huge palms left parallel marks on my face and ringing in my ears for days.’ (PH, P.51). He

has a thought that severe and violent penalizing is better for Kambili’s and that will surely

save her soul from hell. Eugene mercilessly punishes his children Kambili’s and Jaja for

being mendacious to him about their mistakes. ‘“Kambili’s you are precious.” His voice
quavered now, like someone speaking at a funeral, choked with emotion… He poured the hot

water on my feet, slowly, as if he were conducting an experiment and wanted to see what

would happen… I felt nothing for a second. And then I screamed.’ (PH, P.194). He deforms

Jaja’s finger simply because he didn’t come first for the catechism test, and later in the novel

Eugene beats Kambili’s so badly that she had to be admitted in hospital, because she had a

painting of her late heathen grandfather Papa Nnukwu which was a souvenir from her cousin

Amaka. But Papa believes that his own father is a heathen because he refused to be converted

by the missionaries.

Eugene embraces a blind faith over his religion. His love relies entirely on spiritual and

cultural grounds. He invariably chooses English and strict Christianity. He additionally

trained his youngsters to dehumanize anyone who is not a catholic. Eugene sees things solely

black and white, as either sinful or not. He uses violence to control his family from his self-

calculated sins and enforces his faith on his family by belittling and abusing them. He finds

joy and peace in Christianity whenever he completes his weekly confession thinking that

after confession his soul will be clarified from all his sins and his soul will rest in heaven. He

holds the purity of the ritual of Sunday mass and Eucharist fast above the physical well-being

of his daughter. ‘- as he swung his belt around Mama, Jaja and me, muttering the devil would

not win.’ (PH, P.102).

Eugene idolizes their white parish priest who is still referred as “our new priest” by the

people. He forced European Christianity down the throats of the members of his church, and

the one man who was ready to take in this foreign culture was Eugene. He tried to convince

the people to be just like him and follow the white God, not all abided and so he resorted to

stick these principles with his family. His dominion over his family represents the

remorseless invasion of colonial forces into foreign lands when he seeks to suppress native

traditions, religions and languages. ‘“You’d never see white people doing that.” ’ (PH,
P.104). This shows his heavy inclination towards the white people and a blind faith that what

they do is always right. Eugene takes each and every decision for his family, from the colour

of the curtains to the colleges that Jaja and Kambili ought to attend. Thus is the present life of

the victimizer Eugene. His past which was stained with his own inferiority complex and

insecurities affect his present life to a great extent that he resorts to physical abuse in the

name of God.

Nigeria gained its independence from the United Kingdom in 1960, but most of them were

unable to celebrate their freedom until 1965. Back to Eugene’s childhood, it was hard for him

to survive. He grew up in an extended family in small village Abba. His school days were

tough because his father Papa Nnukwu who did not care much about Eugene’s education.

Education was not easily accessible for him during his childhood. He also had no one to

depend on. British government did not open schools for Africans until 1920. Educations and

Christianity were closely linked then. It was the period when English missionaries entered

Abba, whom Eugene was curious to visit. He started to admire the people who worked in

missionaries. He found his long yearned love, attention and care which he got from them,

which was not sufficiently given to in his family. He decided to join the missionary for his

education and there started his misconceptions of the how the western hold the key to

education and civilized life. He followed the missionaries and concentrated on his education

which took him to London for his higher studies. His life in London turned his life upside

down and he becomes an Anglophile. His insecurities slowly began to creep in due to the fact

that he is a black man amongst thousands of white men. He has already got a fixation towards

English culture and his misconceptions that white men are superior and always correct makes

him feel more inferior to ever. This fear develops along the course of time and his insecurities

bundle up into poisoning him with abusive attitude towards his own black people. His abuse

of his family is due to the fact that the he was a victim of racism and mental abuse when he
lived in London. He thinks being a white man or following their culture can lead him to God

and make him powerful as they once were in his own country. The inferiority of being a

black man from a poor background hailing from some distant village of the desert land

suffocates him in his newfound haven. Hence he resorts to religion. Religion becomes his

safe place and the priest there becomes a person to whom he shares every inch if his life.

Having no friends to rely on, Eugene found the church to be his shelter. He starts to spend

most of his free time in churches. He studied and prayed this was what he repeatedly

followed setting up a time table for him. This made him to grow self-confident and have safe

feelings. He felt church is the only place where every people were treated equally.

Religion made him comfortable and secure. He has an opinion that the white priests are

humble and kind. With all these experiences he comes to a conclusion that white people are

perfectionists and they flawless as they obey the word of Jesus and accepts Christianity. He

made himself to be one of them. He also assumes the God is also a white person. With this

mentality he enters his homeland and finds people still following traditional Igbo culture.

Even if Christianity is practiced, churches are headed by black priests who worship in their

native language which Eugene thinks is a sin. Hence he settles with the idea that white priests

and European culture are the ones which can save Nigeria. He seeks redemption for his land

to the white God through white priests and English language. These incidents reason out very

well why Eugene is a devout catholic and why he makes himself clear to the children the

importance of westernization. Thus Eugene wants his children’s education to be solely

according to his plan.

Eugene, who stands up against the immorality within the government, refuses to bribe

them, even if it causes him a delay, he wishes to show them the all the papers but never gives

them money unnecessarily. He is an absolute Christian in terms of his charity; he makes large

donations to Peter’s pence pays for communion wine, buys new ovens for the convent, builds
a wing at the native hospital, and pays the college tuition for many native youngsters. He

offers money to anyone who seems to be in need, which made him more puissant by his

magnanimity. In this novel Eugene is showed as a devout catholic figure, he modestly funds

the whole church and exits. Papa is famously known as Medora (the one who does so much

for the community) in his native town Abba. ‘Papa wrote a check and handed it to the usher,

telling her he did not want to make a speech.’ (PH, P.90).

Eugene, however does frankly love his children, and truly believes that he is acting in their

best interests. According to Eugene, his expansionism into the lives of his children has more

of a missionary spirit than the spirit of control. He looks out to convert and illuminate rather

than simply conquer, but he blindly believes in the being morally right always. This however

does not break from Eugene, the intention of using physical power of violence in the lives of

his children Jaja and Kambili. Although Eugene Achike’s was born an Igbo, he prefers to

behave the ways of an English man. He abandons Nigerian ways for British ones by cutting

all his ties with his own father, Papa Nnukwu who refused to be converted by the white

English missionaries. He escaped his idol-worshiping father with help of the catholic

missionaries.

His children are the centre of his life, even though he maltreats them. Each and every time

after mistreatments, Papa himself feels miserable and upset, but it never stopped him from

being strict towards his family. For example, a symbol of both his love and rule for his

children, ‘The tea was always too hot, always burned my tongue… But it didn’t matter,

because I knew that when the tea burned her tongue, it burned Papa’s love into me.’ (PH,

P.8). Eugene never performs violent acts without feeling bad. It even hurts him so bad to

punish his wife and children. However he feels, as a responsible husband and father, he tries

to protect his family and this is the only way to burn sin out of their souls. ‘Papa crushed Jaja
and me to his body. “Did the belt hurt you? Did it break your skin?” He asked, with pity

examining our faces.’ (PH, P.102).

Eugene talks of all kinds of ethics, righteousness and God’s love but does not even allow

his father, the grandfather of the children to visit their house. Eugene’s life is a life of

contradictions. He always wants his family to be away from all kinds of godless activities and

chooses the best to his children and yet abuses them himself in the name of God. But he

altogether is not a bad man because he feels bad for hurting his children and even cries when

beating them. But he never gives up on his religious fanaticism and says he’ll continue to

punish them accordingly until their souls are sin free and they become pure.

Eugene utilizes corporal punishment to discipline his children is due to the fact that he

himself was disciplined the same way. He thinks by inflicting unbearable pain on one’s body,

the sin and the thought of doing it again will vanish completely. This is clearly mentioned in

his own words when he punishes Kambili for lying about their grandfather’s stay with them

in Nsukka. ‘“I committed a sin against my own body once,” he said. “ And the good father,

the one I lived with while I went to St. Gregory’s, came in and saw me… He poured the

water in a bowl and soaked my hands in it.” (PH , P.196). This is why Eugene is so particular

about physical abuse as he thinks it will wipe out any sin and it will never be practiced again.

This is the main reason why abuse continues to exist. Once a victim becomes the next

victimizer and abuses a passive victim. Severing the chances of abuse right where it starts and

educating about abuse can cease the chain of abuse.

 Chapter III

Conclusion

All children deserve a happy childhood and the opportunity to lead a dignified life safe

from violence, exploitation, neglect, deprivation and discrimination. Any intentional harm or

mistreatment to a child under 18yrs old is considered to be a child abuse, which is a life-

scarring experience for a child. Usually the abuse by a trusted person affects the child to a

greater extent and they tend to feel unsafe everywhere.

Psychologists criticize that being violent towards children which leads to physical injury

and emotional trauma as a way to discipline are categorized under child abuse. Abuse is

usually interwoven with parental care which makes it difficult to identify. There are no

definite reasons for parents to abuse their children. Thinking of punishments either physical

or verbal as tools for imparting good character in their children is the major cause of parental

abuse. Often these abuses go unnoticed as neither the children nor the parents know that they

are destroying the child’s psyche and eventually it’s whole life.

A parent’s untreated mental illness is a most common cause of child abuse. Mental

illness like manic disorder can make parents unavailable for a child. When a mother suffers

from any mental disorder, she suspects that her child is plotting against her. And a parent’s

suffering is often the cause for child abuse.

Many parents lack managing the physical and mental needs of a child adequately. They

are the ones who need counselling to understand the role of a parent in the right manner.

Many children face psychological mistreatment because of stress the parents or caregivers

undergo. This is because parents find it difficult to deal with the emotional needs of children
when they are under stressful situations like divorces, relationship issues, financial worries

and jobs related problem and this leads to verbal or physical abuse of the child.

Child abuse and neglect always leave some scars on the child, which lasts for a long-term

in both mind and body. It impacts a massive change in the child’s adulthood in ways like

managing their relationships which makes them feel less-confident. These children fail to act

normally when they are with the public. They develop trust issues especially when their

parents are responsible for abuse. They find it difficult to express their feelings or emotions

positively. So, they end up bottling up emotions that makes way for many psychological

problems. Abused children often gets addicted to alcohol or drugs in the adulthood to relieve

the pain of depression and anxiety. They find it very difficult to overcome their negative

feelings.

Recognizing the signs of abuse is the first step in preventing child abuse. Children tend to

suffer in silence hence it is necessary to make them feel free and share. Abuse is both

physical and verbal. Verbal abuse is commonly prevalent but are casually overlooked.

Teaching children about their rights to be safe makes them less likely to think that abuse is

their fault and most likely to report the abuser. Parents need to volunteer their time by

involving with other parents and families. Educating the children and parents will be the

simple and best way to prevent child abuse.

Physical and sexual mistreatment is not the only abuse. Neglect is also an abuse. Children

get emotionally affected when they are rejected and isolated. Parents should avoid

disciplining their children when they are upset. Encourage good behaviour and gain control

through kindness. Unexplained injuries are not alone a sign of abuse. But, also depression,

fear of certain adult and sudden changes and lack in their routine are also indication of being

neglected or abused. Support prevention programs to stop abuse before it occurs. Encourage
leaders in the community to be supportive of children and their families. Ask the local and

national lawmakers to support Legislation to ensure better protection of the children to

improve their lives.

Informing the national abuse prevention control can ensure instant help from the authorities

in charge and counselling unit. Also, the child welfare Information Gateway provides

families and individuals with the links to support the family and the individual abused.

Child psychology is the study of a child’s mental state and behavioural patterns. A child’s

brain can be assumed as a lump of clay that is yet to be shaped. The mental state of a child is

impressionable. It is still developing and hence it vulnerable to the dangerous impacts of the

environment it is developing in. there is a saying that a happy family results in happy

children, and it most definitely true. No child is born the way he/she appears to be in their

childhood or further in their adulthood. Trauma plays a major role in shaping the mental

condition and behaviour of a child. Trauma can be classified into various forms. From the

outside of the situation some traumas may not be seen as serious but one thing many people

fail to understand is that no trauma is small. Each incident is unique and has a very definitive

impact on a child. As adults a very few of are able to understand the doings and pain a child

goes through, and often it is because we have experienced the same trauma in our childhood.

A child cannot express his or her feelings like an adult. They cannot understand what they

are currently undergoing and so they often keep to themselves. It takes special care and

therapy to allow them to open up and speak their problem. Most of the reclusive cases of

trauma are cases of abuse. Abuse does not necessarily refer to physical. Abuse can also be

mental. Mental abuse has an even more bad effect than physical abuse. Sometimes the abuser

may not even know what kind of effect he or she is having on the child receiving the abuse.

Such kind of abuser might have been victims themselves in their childhood. They might have
undergone the stress and mental torture, and they grow up to believe that the particular

abusive environment is normal and fair. This repeats the abuse. It is necessary that this chain

of abuse is broken to avoid the continual abuse child after child. Children learn and believe in

what they see and experience. They look up their parent as idols and inspirations and guides

that they intend to follow. As many cases of child abuse present themselves where the abuser

is often the parent, then the ideology of parenting is morphed into a form of abuse for the

child and he/she grows up with the knowledge that parenting is so and that abuse is normal.

This is a major problem. As therapist or a counsellor we can only do so much and only so if

the problem is identified and confronted. Now in countries like America which are far more

developed have laws inn place to prevent such abuse. The problem has been identified and

steps are being taken to avoid any further damage. But what of developing countries like

India, the Middle East and such. In India we have various factors that prevent the government

from implementing hard laws against the masses. First we have an extremely large

population. Secondly we are very much culturally bound to think logically and practically.

And lastly we do no do not have young leaders who might think practically. The same thing

applies to many countries including Nigeria.

To break the chain of abuse and to erase it completely awareness must be brought. Not

only among children but among adults too. This awareness has to be spread inconclusively.

In countries like India mental health does not exist, according to the people. Since ancient

times people have believed that religion is the answer to all problems. Many religious

organizations all over the world have vilified the practice of medicine and most commonly

therapy for mental illness. They have further chosen to ignore the presence and emergence of

mental illness prevalent among mankind. It is high time we started trusting science

completely and acknowledged the problem of mental illness and abuse. This kind of mental

abuse is most commonly found in children. The abuse usually starts at a very young age
which in the future develops into major disorders, anger management issues, and abusive

characters.

The first and important step to stop the chain of parental or familial abuse is recognizing

it. The culture of disciplining varies from where and when you are raised. As a parent you

must be clear about what is a harmful pattern so that you don’t do it with your children.

Harmful act towards children may turn the fine feelings into negative emotions and their pain

will turn into many other ways. The effects of trauma are always deeper than we realize.

Parents should relieve their tension by letting out their emotions, because an overreaction to

stress may lead to physical violence towards children which can also lower their self-esteem

which is an emotional abuse. Celebrate positive changes, appreciate small achievements, this

can reinforce the bond with your children and help in healing.
 Chapter IV

Works cited

Cosby, Matt, Purple Hibiscus characters: Papa (Eugene Achike) : LitCharts LLC, 2015.

https://www.litcharts.com/lit/purple-hibiscus/characters/papa-eugene-achike

Szczypinski, Sarah, Democracy dies in darkness : The Washington Post, 2018.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2018/05/04/abusive-parenting-styles-

can-be-inherited-heres-are-5-ways-to-break-the-cycle/

McKeever, Christine, Weinbloom, Elizabeth ed, "Purple Hibiscus Summary" : GradeSaver,

2021.

https://www.gradesaver.com/purple-hibiscus/study-guide/summary