Purple Hibiscus reading response

     Throughout Purple Hibiscus, Adichie depicts tension between a father named Papa and his family. Papa is a very religious man who is thought of as a caring man who gives to the community. However, his actions toward his family completely contradict the popular belief of this man. Papa is actually an extremely unstable man who claims to be religious but instead is violent and deceiving. In one scene, Kambili hears a loud thumping sound against the wall of her house. Papa was beating his pregnant wife in order to kill the baby.

     Kambili immediately knew what happened to her mom, however she refused to believe it. Kambili and her brother Jaja have an odd relationship in where the deny the situation with their father. On my opinion, they do this because they don’t want to admit how bad their situation is with their father. It is some kind of a coping mechanism. It’s horrible that he two refuse to talk about it, because the two would be better able to deal with this if they did.