Symbols/motifs

Question 1

The purple hibiscus

Answer 1

• Grows in Aunty Ifeoma’s garden
• Because of its role in Jaja and Kambili’s mental awakening, the purple hibiscus comes to represent freedom and individuality—things they lack under Papa’s rule, but find in Nsukka with Aunty Ifeoma.
• At the end of the novel, Kambili hopes that Jaja will plant purple hibiscus when he gets out of prison, showing her hope that freedom will blossom anew even after so much tragedy.

Question 2

Mama’s figurines

Answer 2

• Mama always polishes these figurines meticulously after Papa beats her
• Mama, Kambili, and Jaja never speak aloud of Papa’s violence, but polishing the figurines become a kind of euphemism for his domestic abuse.
• On Palm Sunday, the turning point for the family, Papa gets angry at Jaja’s open disobedience and throws his missal, breaking the figurines. As she cleans them up, Mama tells Kambili that she won’t need to replace them.
• This indicates that something has changed in the family dynamic, and Mama won’t stand for violence anymore, just as Jaja asserts his independence by disobeying Papa.
• Thus the figurines symbolize the submissiveness and silence the family lives with under the fear of Papa’s violence, and when the figurines are broken it means the beginning of freedom and free speech.