Sample Essay On The Coming Of Age In Adiche’s “Purple Hibiscus”

Adichie’s “Purple Hibiscus” addressed the general theme that was common to the African nation at the time the author’s views on the corruption and the high level of religion as a fundamental principle leads the readers to understand that each character changes considerably as they move through the cycle of events in the novel. Kambili finds God as she develops over time. In fact, the author notes that Kambili made a U-turn and went back the way she had come. She allows her mind to drift to a number of thoughts, but in particular she begins “imagining God laying out the hills of Nsukka with his wide white hands, crescent-moon shadows underneath his nails just like Father Benedict’s” (131). The readers realize that Kambili has found God and this is important to her as she changes as she becomes older. Her earlier years of believing the colonizers views of God as a white person became a slowly fading memory after she visits with her Aunt Ifeoma. The tone of the narrator also changes as she begins to understand that God was not necessarily white as she had been led to believe, but that God existed in different ways to different religious faiths. In addition, her attitude changes towards life when she showed compassion for the snail and becomes determined to buy the entire basket just to set one snail free (238). This shows that just like the snail, Kambili feels trapped in her father’s home, but as she develops her independent thoughts she realizes that her strength grows because of the bonds with her aunt.
Kambili starts to come of age from early in the novel as she realizes that “things started to fall apart when my brother, Jaja, did not go to communion and Papa flung his heavy missal across the room and broke the figurines on the étagère” (1). The allusion to Achebe’s famous knowledge draws the readers to understand the changes in the society because of Colonialism. Kambili sees the changes as this comes further along in the novels as the author shows that Kambili was coming of age as delves further into her earlier ideas of God and make the effort to connect her earlier religious beliefs with her new knowledge of God. As she watches the rain splash across the veranda she remembers the lessons of her mother who would tell “Jaja and me that God was undecided about what to send, rain or sun. We would sit in our rooms and look out at the raindrops glinting with sunlight, waiting for God to decide” (Kambili 217). This childlike belief in God and nature comes from her mother’s Christian beliefs and while Kambili does not dwell on the external aspects of the traditional rituals aside from the Igbo song, the narrator compares these ideas to the Catholic God and to those of Chukwu. She finally begins to recognize that God is omnipresent and that he created the world with all its being while the god, Chukwu was responsible for building everything in the earth. These thoughts reflect her earlier beliefs as a child, but when she begins to show her indecision about returning home, the readers realize that the childlike nature had disappeared and the tone becomes older as she tries to make her decision about going back home or staying with her father or even living in her father’s shadows.
Thirdly, the readers can see the way in which the author comes of age as she looks towards her future. The readers see the new changes in the Kambili as she begins to understand Jaja’s transformation when she looks at Jaja and questions if the dimness in his eyes was a result of the shame he felt from having not done the ima mmuo (87). Clearly, Kambili is realizing the challenges that come when the culture begins to changes because of the liberal and traditionalist views. She dreams of taking Jaja to Nsukka first and later to America (Kambili 306). Her thoughts shift from the childish views that they will plant oranges to the way she accepts that “the new rains will come down soon” (307). The suggestion in this section of the story is that Kambili’s laughter is a reflection of her maturity and of the fact that she has come into her own as where she learns that she can take care of herself and her mother. The reader also sees her respect for nature and the new oranges that she hopes to plant as a symbol of new birth, beginnings and life. In addition, the reader recognizes that by coming of age, Kambili embraces the new hopes and dreams that she will achieve with a new beginning.