In Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie tells a story of an internal conflict about the weight of religion and submission in a family. In the beginning of the novel, the author brings up "Mama's Figurines"."He picked up the missal and flung it across the room... missed Jaja completely, but hit the glass etagere... landed on their many pieces." pg. 7 The figurines are used to represent multiple things in the story.
- The fragility of the mother. (They were glass)
- The silence in the family. ( Mother would clean them every time she got beaten because she did not want to speak of what she went through.)
- The submissiveness of the family.
Prior to "Papa" breaking the novel, Mama was constantly beat and there has been occasions where she had miscarriages because she was beat by "Papa". To cope with the miscarriages she would wash the figurines and the shelf, then she will embrace herself in the center of the room. Soon the shelf begins to represent "Mama" and the figurines will represent her sanctuary in the sense that she looks towards them for comfort and solace. When the figurines are broken, it will represent the breakage of submission in the family in a sense that there is a change. I feel as though the Missal has a connection to the story as well, a missal is a heavy religious book and I think it shows the weight of religion in the family when it hits the glass figurines. It made the family submissive and fragile but under great force, the family was broken into pieces. In my family, beatings are seen a sign of discipline and my question is... Do you think it is right to discipline children by raising your hand against them for doing the wrong thing?
I really like the symbolism you tied into it with the shelf and mama I didn't really look at it they way until you mentioned it. It definitely does represent a broken beaten women caused by the same man.
ReplyDeleteYou used a lot of symbolism and analyzed a lot of the book in your post. The connection was also a good point to make. Made me interested in reading it. :)
ReplyDeleteI think it's a pretty good book! (:
DeleteTo answer your question at the end I would say yes depending on how bad the wrong doing was. I would also like to say that I liked the way you pieced together the story. I understand the story and I haven't read a single page of the book.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question at the end I would say yes depending on how bad the wrong doing was. I would also like to say that I liked the way you pieced together the story. I understand the story and I haven't read a single page of the book.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, I think you should discipline a child harshly depending on how bad the issue at hand was. However I do believe that putting a hand on the child should really be a last option.
DeleteI feel as though it depends on how far discipline goes. Sometimes a smack or two is needed but the way Kambali's dad treats mama is not okay at all. Im pretty sure that the reason she lost the baby was because of him and that right there shows you how violent he can get. He seems to get this way when people don't feel the same way he does or it seems like they are disobeying him.
ReplyDelete"Mama" has had multiple miscarriages before and it wouldn't surprise me if all of them was because of the beatings that she received. I think "Papa" has the mentality of "God is everything and if his believers disobey then I'll have to change that disobedience."
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