Purple Hibiscus Messages Flashcards
Family Life
Adichie exposes how family life can be both a sanctuary and a prison, and reveals the destructive consequences of love tainted by fear. Adichie invites the reader to confront the silences that fester behind closed doors, and to recognise the quiet resilience it takes to survive and rebuild from within.
Violence
Adichie reveals how violence, masked as discipline or devotion, poisons even the most sacred bonds. In Papa’s home, love and brutality coexist, exposing how violence is often justified, hidden, and perpetuated within systems of power and belief. Adichie challenges the reader to question how easily violence is normalised when cloaked in authority, and to see the cost of silence when abuse goes unchecked.
Religion
Through the collision of faith and fanaticism, Adichie warns of the dangers when religion is weaponised to control rather than uplift. She urges the reader to distinguish between belief that liberates and belief that oppresses, and to embrace a spirituality rooted in compassion, not coercion.
Gender
Adichie explores how women navigate a world that demands silence and sacrifice, yet she celebrates their enduring strength. Adichie compels the reader to listen for the power in women’s quiet defiance and to challenge the rigid gender roles that confine both expression and identity.
Politics
By paralleling Nigeria’s political unrest with domestic authoritarianism, Adichie demonstrates how tyranny flourishes where fear reigns. Adichie compels the reader to recognise the importance of truth, voice, and resistance in the face of repression.
Defiance
Adichie celebrates acts of defiance—large and small—as the seeds of liberation and change, which are essential for growth. Adichie invites the reader to see resistance as a catalyst for transformation, reminding us that even small acts of courage can ignite profound change.
Freedom
Adichie redefines freedom not as the absence of rules, but as the presence of choice—the space to question, to dream, and to grow. In Purple Hibiscus, Adichie invites the reader to reflect on how true freedom only begins when silence is broken and obedience gives way to self-discovery.
Inequality
Adichie illustrates the vast chasm between privilege and poverty in Nigerian society, revealing how wealth can be used to silence dissent, secure power, and mask abuse, while poverty becomes both a burden and a source of dignity and resistance. Adichie invites the reader to question who gets to speak, who is silenced, and how power, and the lack of it, shapes every aspect of life.
Colonialism
Adichie shows how colonialism’s legacy lives on not just in institutions, but in minds, where language, religion, and identity are fractured. Adichie urges the reader to examine the deep, often invisible ways in which colonial legacies distort identity, and to seek a future rooted in reclamation rather than rejection.
