Purple Hibiscus

Authoritative, judgmental, and pious to a fault, Papa’s fanatically-religious attitude alerts readers to the dangers of intolerance. Although his public displays of pompous devotion coupled with generous monetary gifts to church and community give him a reputation as a virtuous man, his private acts of vicious abuse reveal his true intent—to enforce an isolationist form of religion based on the foreign “colonial” Catholicism he adopted when young. As Kambili notes:

Papa changed his accent when he spoke, sounding British, just as he did when he spoke to Father Benedict. He was gracious, in the eager-to-please way that he always assumed with the religious, especially with the white religious (46).

Papa’s insincere affectations reveal a superficial approach to religion that cannot indefinitely withstand reality’s truths, in this case his own intrinsic ancestral customs. He shuns all other methods of worship and enforces impossible expectations on his family to adhere to new ways, often physically abusing his family in order to break their connection to the old ways.

All family members in Papa’s household exemplify round, dynamic characters—complex, multi-faceted individuals who undergo spiritual transformations, whether positive or negative, initiated by Papa’s unflinching stance on religion and the pivotal visit to Nsukka. Papa breaks, as do his idealized gods, when he loses his grip on his family and life in general. In essence, Papa exhibits in microcosm the failure of colonial ideology: “At work here Is not only a specific colonial project of disciplining the native body against the propensity for laziness or sexual excess, but also the foundational dualistic logic of Western philosophical discourse in which mind and body are polarized and hierarchized” (Sandwith). Papa cannot maintain so radical and tight a grip on his household, and so the heirarchy shatters, just as colonial Nigeria did. Mama’s life shatters when she is forced to save her children. Kambili and Jaja, impressionable adolescents, experience a tremendous amount of change at their exposure to Aunty Ifeoma’s world and her accepting ways. Jaja gains wisdom and courage; Kambili gains compassion and confidence. Gods are broken, too—either destroyed completely or recreated.