Purple Hibiscus Focus -THE IMAGERY OF SENSES

SIGHT -colours & eyes

Eyes

Jaja and Kambili have a language of the eyes to communicate through their silence. Later in the book, Jaja shields his eyes mind behind a guarded curtain, ending their nonverbal communication.

Quotations:"He knew I was looking at him, that my shocked eyes begged him to seal his mouth, but he did not look at me" (6).

Colours

Colour presents a spectrum and variety of feeling
and its sensual and symbolic interpretation.

Red

Associated with blood

Mama's blood after Papa abuses her -the trauma of witnessing the aftermath of her trail of blood causes the words in Kambili's textbook to stream into blood. Also any danger of displeasing Papa.

Quotations:"We cleaned up the trickle of blood, which trailed away as if someone had carried a leaking jar of red watercolor all the way downstairs. Jaja scrubbed while I wiped" (33)."I went upstairs then and sat staring at my textbook. The black type blurred, the letters swimming into one another, and then changed to a bright red, the red of fresh blood. The blood was watery, flowing from Mama, flowing from my eyes" (35)."I knocked my glass over as I reached for it, and the blood-colored juice crept over the white lace tablecloth. Mama hastily placed a napkin on the spot, and when she raised the reddened napkin, I remembered her blood on the stairs" (99). "My head was quickly filling with blood or water or sweat. Whatever it was, I knew I would faint when my head got full" (181).

The blood in Papa's red face and eyes: his rage or uncontrolled warped sympathy when he punishes his family

Quotations:"His eyes were swollen and red, and somehow that made him look younger, more vulnerable" (34).--> Papa telling Kambili their mother will not be back until tomorrow after he beat her"I had been teetering on that boundary that divides sleep and wakefulness, imagining Papa coming to get us himself, imagining the rage in his red-tinged eyes, the burst of Igbo from his mouth" (182).

Red Hibiscuses in Enugu Garden

Represents the domination and control of Papa
with its undertone of domestic violence

Quotations:"But my memories did not start at Nsukka. They started before, when all the hibiscuses in our front yard were a startling red" (16).

Purple

Purple Hibiscus symbolic of freedom

In Nsukka garden, its the introduction to
freedom which the siblings have never felt
before. Jaja takes a particular liking to the
flowers.

In Enugu garden, it represents to seed of
freedom planted in their oppressive household
as the purple flowers grow despite the cold
conditions, symbolic of prevailing hope and
freedom.

Quotations:"Jaja's defiance seemed to me now like Aunty Ifeoma's experimental purple hibiscus: rare, fragrant with the undertones of freedom, a different kind of freedom from the one the crowds waving green leaves chanted at Governmental Square after the coup. A freedom to be, to do." (16).

Black

Symbolic of Fear

The shadow in Jaja's Eyes

Quotations:"Fear had darkened Jaja's eyes to the colour of coal tar, but he looked Papa in the face now" (7).

The shadow shifts into Papa's eyes and it grows

Quotations:"There was a shadow clouding Papa's eyes, a shadow that had been in Jaja's eyes. Fear. It had left Jaja's and entered Papa's" (13).

Ash

Connects to to Ash Wednesday which proceeds Palm Sunday, the day "things fall apart" in the family. Ash means the destruction of their perfect facade. The burning of the ashes can be connected to Papa's burning rage that the family can no longer tolerate.

Quotations:"Her skin, usually the smooth brown of groundnut paste, looked like the liquid had been sucked out of it, ashen, like the color of cracked harmattan soil" (30). --> Mama's complexion due to pregnancy

Yellow

Beauty, love,
Happiniess

Kambili's Yellow Flower

HEARING -silence & voice

Silence

symbolizes the oppression of their family
and the control over their words and actions.
It enunciates their fear of the consequences
for speaking out of line.

Kambili's and Jaja's
eye language

Quotations:"the past, through the years when Jaja and Mama and I spoke more with our spirits than our lips" (16)."

Kambili, Jaja, and Mama
usually only speak to
compliment or supply calculated,
careful comments to please Papa

Kambili always has a self loathing
when she was not the one to say
something that made Papa pleased

Silence as tension

Quotations: "The silence was broken only by the whir of the ceiling fan as it sliced through the still air" (7).

Subtopic

Silence also as a rebellious strength. After their
compliance to Papa is broken, their is new silence
filling the house:

PPC: Jaja purposely not
complimenting Papa's juice like the others

Quotations:"Say something, please, ..(13)

Speech

symbolizes the family's freedom of speech
and individualism and rebellion to conformity

PPC: Jaja talking back to Papa
after not taking communion.

Laughter

Associated with Aunt Ifeoma and her family:
represents freedom and ownership of emotions
and character.

PP: Kambili dreams of her laughter and is initially
startled and fascinated by it because alienated
and foreign to her. She does not even know her
own laugh. Later, she learns the freedom of laughter

Singing

Singing has always been looked down upon by Papa
and becomes something forbidden and seen as inferior
and uncivilized.

Singing represents a freedom from conformity
and a fearless, unapologetic proclamation of joy
and praise

PP: When Aunt Ifeoma's family starts singing in the middle of
prayer, Jaja and Kambili have a nonverbal debate of whether
to join or not. Jaja has an intense yearning to join, but Kambili, under the influence of Papa refuses him.

Igbo

Papa's uncivilized, uncontrollable rage

TOUCH/FEELING -pain & comfort

Pain & Abuse

A fiery and burning sensation is
associated with Papa and pain

Burning Love Sip

PP: Kambili's fiery pain after being
hospitalized by Papa

The poisoning of Papa?

Pressure and Suffocation

head and ears filling with pressure from stress and fear

Happiness & Comfort (foamy, hugs)

TASTE

Taste

The flavors of fear

Kambili's obsession with Papa's
approval is toxic

Quotations:Then he reached out and held my hand, and I felt as though my mouth were full of melting sugar (26).

Punishment and Reconciliation:
Papa claims his punishment is for their own good,
but it carries a bitter taste

Quotations:Father Benedict sprinkled us with holy water. Some of the holy water landed on my lips, and I tasted the stale saltiness of it as we prayed (36).--> after Papa beats and drags their mother out of the house, he brings the family to the priest for Mama's "forgiveness". The boiled yam and peppery greens refused to go down my throat; they clung to my mouth like children clinging to thier mother's hand at a nursery school entrance" (41). --> Kambili anticipates and fear her fathers punishment for coming second in school

The flavours of freedom/love

Subtopic

Tasteless*

The numbness of pain and fear

PPC: Kambili cannot taste her supper
due to her shock and fear of Jaja and Papa's
conflict

Quotations:I was certain the soup was good, but I did not taste it, could not taste it. My tongue felt like paper (12). I reached out quickly for my glass and took a sip. It tasted watery. I wanted to seem eager; maybe if I talked about how good it tasted, Papa might forget that he had not yet punished Jaja (12).

SMELL

spice?

sweet?

THESIS STATEMENT:

Compare/Contrast of Senses Associated W/ Oppression and Freedom

Quotations:Fear. I was familiar with fear, yet each time a felt it, it was never the same as the other times, as though it came in different flavors and colours (196).