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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie addresses how corruption can affect everyone on a personal and political level in Purple Hibiscus. This is demonstrated through the violence Papa uses to oppress his family, the social and military unrest in the country, and Papa’s surveillance of the children.
Firstly, Adichie presents power and corruption through Papa’s violence towards the family as a method of oppression. Adichie presents Papa as a paradoxical character opposing the tyrannical power of the government yet inflicting similar pain upon his family. Interestingly, Adichie uses Papa’s enforced silence on the family as a rhetorical device to portray the Nigerian people during the coup in the 1980s. This is firstly demonstrated in the novel when Papa makes the children take love sips (but)’ the tea was always too hot, always burned my tongue, my raw tongue suffered. I think Adichie uses the symbol of the love sip’ to demonstrate Papa’s abusive actions and suggests the power he has over his family conflicts with love and pain. The repetition of the adverb always denotes continuous and consistent behavior over a length of time. The verb suffered connotes someone in distress because of an illness or neglect which suggests that she felt extreme pain from the tea. Later in the novel, Kambili brings a painting of Papa Nnukwu into the house and when Papa sees it, he cuts it to shreds. I think that the painting symbolizes Kambili’s voice and when the painting is destroyed, it evokes the idea that Papa is banishing the traditionalists from his home hence destroying the source of defiance. The ruthlessness is further enforced when he beats her and Adichie describes the stinging.[as] raw now, even more like bites – the metal landed on open skin on my side, my back, my legs. Kicking. Kicking. Kicking. This creates the impression that the pain she experiences is unbearable. The use of the adjective raw’ connotes torture and torn skin and could be described as animalistic violence. Interestingly, during the children’s punishments, Adichie uses metal’ to connote a cold, hard surface suggesting harshness and the lack of emotion in Papa’s acts of violence. The repetition of solitary kicking’ emphasizes the brutality and reinforces the blunt force of the attack. The repetition (three times) of the one-word sentence evokes the image of rapid outbursts of ferocity. Adichie employs a simile comparing the stinging’ to bites emphasizing the immense pain that Kambili encounters because of her father and creating the impression that the pain would be long-lasting. Adichie further presents the lack of power the other members have when Kambili disobeys Papa and ‘lay there, did nothing’ illustrating the family having no freedom over their actions or speech. I think this reflects Kambili’s frustration with Papa’s violence and continues to defy him stating that she will no longer allow this. Finally when Jaja was 10 years old and did not come first in his Holy Communion class, he ‘came out supporting his left hand [in tears] Papa was crying too Jaja told me Papa avoided his right hand because it is the hand he writes with’. The phrase Papa was crying too’ suggests that this was an act of rage and that he regrets it or feels bad about it but feels it is necessary. I think that Adichie is suggesting this because usually the person being tortured would have this reaction instead of the person inflicting the pain. However, the idea that Papa avoided his [Jaja’s] right hand’ implies the punishment is more sinister than it first seems as Papa is keen to avoid damaging his writing hand and could therefore be perceived as an act of torture. I believe Adichie is suggesting that corruption and power are primarily presented through Papa using violence because he uses this power to make others fearful to question what is wrong.
Secondly, power and corruption are portrayed through the social and military unrest in the country. Adichie presents the military using force as a way to silence others from speaking out against them and restricting people from freedom. Initially, a military coup has overthrown the government, and this has led to social unrest within the country presented through saw a woman spit at the soldier, I saw a soldier raise a whip in the air. The whip was long. It curled in the air before it landed on the woman’s shoulder.’ The phrase saw’ is repeated inexpressively twice in the sentence, suggesting that such violent behavior is normal because she experiences similar acts of violence at the hands of Papa. The contempt from the woman is a sign of defiance against oppression which results in a punishment. Clearly, this demonstrates power and corruption because of the inability of one to stand up for themselves and have the justice one deserves. The noun whip’ denotes an item that is used for urging an animal and suggests that this would be painful and inhumane. This quotation implies that the soldiers believe that are above the law and can harm innocent people. Later in the novel, the reader is able to understand the use of force when they overturned all the boxes and suitcases (in Aunty Ifeomas house) but they did not rummage through the contents. They scattered but did not search. Here Adichie implies that this is a method to intimidate and threaten Ifeoma and to illustrate that the government is the most powerful body in the country. This is further implied when Ade Coker expresses his opinion on the government, and soon after is arrested, and ‘they put out cigarettes on his back. They put out so many cigarettes on his back. This mirrors the treatment of Dele Giwa who fought for human rights during the coups. The inclusion of so’ in the repetition of the quotation is important because it emphasizes the idea that this was unnecessary torture and only a method to prevent a scenario like this from occurring again. Later in the novel, he is silenced when he was blown up when he opened the package a package everybody would have known was from the Head of State. This is important as it is based on Dele Giwas murder in his Lagos home by a parcel bomb in 1986 emphasizing the idea that power and corruption can lead to unnecessary deaths which can be avoided.
Finally, power and corruption can be presented through Papa’s surveillance of the children. Initially, this is demonstrated through a description of the house as the compound walls, topped by coiled electric wires, [that] was so high I could not see the cars driving by on the streets’. The connotations of electric imply the danger of death from which there is no escape. The whole quotation suggests the potential psychological violence experienced as the enclosure and silence within the house cause the family to feel like virtual prisoners in an otherwise large and luxurious place. This is further demonstrated through the description of the school’s enclosure topped by jagged pieces of green glass with sharp edges jutting out which suggests the school is like a prison from which escape is presented as impossible because of the danger involved in attempting to do so. The adjective jagged’ denotes rough sharp points which could symbolize the violent power of their surroundings and how there seems to be no escape from this danger. Further, I believe that the jutting out of already jagged sharp-edged glass reinforces a further, almost relentless assault on Kambili and Jaja should they contemplate an escape and be successful enough to scale the wall in the first instance. Another way surveillance is portrayed is through the use of Kevin because he makes sure that the children follow the detailed timetable they have ‘We always climbed into the car so Kevin could take us, so he could watch us’. I think Adichie implies that the car is an extension of the prison of their home and Papa’s surveillance. This is a presentation of power and corruption because the children are unexposed to the outside world, so they follow Papa’s orders and wishes and only find out what is happening through others.
In Conclusion, I believe that power and corruption happen on a social and political level and that when people become warped in an idea, it can become oppressive and can corrupt others. I believe that power and corruption are mainly presented by Papa’s violence because he uses this to have control over the family.
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