Purple Hibiscus Pt. 2

Purple Hibiscus

A theme in this story, as cheesy as it sounds, is coming of age. Throughout the novel you see significant changes in both Kambili and Jaja.  You start to see Kambili have her own voice.  Being a grown up means making your own decisions, but for Kambili and Jaja the only choice is Papa’s decision.  Their Aunt opens up such a different and elaborate world that they love.  Their Aunt makes them reconsider things and helps them take a huge leap into adulthood.

Another theme in this story is religion.  The book even starts off with religion and most of the problems are religions based.  Kambili can’t talk to her own grandfather because her father calls him a heathen, his own father.  He values religion more than family and he has admitted that saying religion is always first.  Papa’s temper is based off of religion and the fact that not everyone follows the same one and he thinks it’s rebelling.  That’s why him and Jaja aren’t on good terms because Jaja finally showed he wants to rebel against the religion.  Papa can’t handle the thought of his children being individuals, he controls not only them but also his wife.  Religion is more of an excuse for him to control more and more.

The more and more I read this book the more and more it has a meaning.  This book brings up almost every subject a family might have to deal with.  It makes you look at life a little bit better.

Purple Hibiscus Pt. 1

Purple Hibiscus

This book is in the point of view by fifteen-year-old Kambili who lives in Enugu, Nigeria.  She lives with her mother, father, and brother.  Though this is not the most functional family, the father sets high expectations for everyone in the household.  One day her Aunt Ifeoma convinces her brother to have Kambili and her brother, Jaja, visit her.  They find a totally different world when they are with her and soon as they return home things are different after her mother commits a desperate act.

Archetype 1: The Fall

In the beginning of the book you get an idea of Kambili's parents relationship, which is abusive.  The mother being metaphorically in the father's cuffs, being a "housewife" with certain expectations.  You also learn that she has had many miscarriages and townspeople have told her husband to marry a fertile woman and leave her.  She discovers that she is pregnant and tells Kambili who is worried for the child because of her father.  After a couple of months being pregnant Kambili hears rumbling in her parents bedroom and emerges from her room to see her father carrying her mother downstairs and blood on the floor.  She is hospitalized, but loses the child and never mentions it again, acting as if it never happened.

Archetype 2: Father - Son Conflict

The book opens up with the family coming home from church and Kambili being nervous because Jaja didn't take communion in church, which is an expectation from their father.  After arriving home his father questions Jaja, but Jaja’s answer does not satisfy him.”He picked up the missal and flung it across the room, toward Jaja.”(pg 7).  And then later that night Jaja excuses himself from dinner and goes to his room.  Their father excuses them and that’s when they leave, but Jaja didn’t even finish his meal and he left.  You can clearly tell there is tension in the household and that’s why Jaja is slightly rebelling.

Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban

Character Analysis - Peter Pettigrew:

Peter Pettigrew is one of the characters Harry Potter fans tend to dislike.  Not only is he sneaky and evil, but he's so wimpy and pathetic that you just can't stand him.  We don't actually meet Peter until closer to the end of the third book, but we do meet Scabbers early on in the first book.  Scabbers was Ron's pet rat that was handed down to him from one of his older brothers.  What we don't know is that Scabbers isn't a rat at all, and that it's really Peter Pettigrew who's been in hiding for twelve years.  Peter is what they call an animagus, which means he has the ability to transform into an animal.  Very similiar to Serious Black who's animagus form is a black dog. Peter's animagus form is obviously a rat, and has been a rat for quite some time now as he has been named Scabbers and taken a role as a household pet for the Weasleys.  When we finally see the truth about Scabbers being Pettigrew, it's when Serious Black chases him through the womping willow tree and into the secret shack.  Apparently Serious has actually been hunting down Peter the whole time and not Harry like everyone thought he was.  It turns out that Serious, Peter, and Harry's dad James were all once friends when they were younger.  It was Peter who framed Serious and helped Voldemort locate the Potter's house that lead to the murder of Harry's parents.