A JOURNEY TOWARDS SELF-REALIZATION: A STUDY OF ADICHIE’S PURPLE HIBISCUS

Abstract

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian award-winning writer who is interested in themes like race, gender and identity. She supports social justice, diversity, immigration and inclusion through her works. This article is a study from the hypothesis that the main characters in the novel Purple Hibiscus undergo a journey from confusion to stability which is very much their own as the different characters deal with the same familial situation differently with regard to race, gender, religion and culture.      The premise of this paper would be that the clash of different cultures and traditions expand the consciousness of the people who go through it to a rare understanding of the situation around them.

This paper focuses on unraveling the journey towards self-realization and an understanding of cultures through the characters in Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus. This novel talks about the different cultures between two siblings in a family. There is a conflict between traditional and modern cultures and religions. The children find themselves caught in the crossfire even as they try to trace their real selves in the maze of contradictions that they face on a daily basis. It is also a journey towards adulthood, towards a stable and practical life.

The Purple Hibiscus found in aunt Ifeoma’s place represents open-mindedness and an attempt to accept reality as one sees it. Adichie has depicted different journeys into self-realization in the characters of the two children Kambili and Jaja. This paper would be an endeavor to analyze Adicihe’s novel Purple Hibiscus from the perspective of inner journeys enabling the reader to understand the characters better.