“Purple Hibiscus” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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The novel starts out with Kambili Achike, a young, shy and innocent girl that doesn’t know she has a voice. During the progression of the novel there is changes that happen internally with Kambili. A lot of factors played a role in Kambili’s change of character. In the essay the development and factors that contributed to Kambili’s change will be discussed. At the beginning, Kambili is seen as this obedient, native and immature girl because of the way she handles herself and situations.
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She doesn’t speak her mind and physically, Kambili don’t want to speak if it is not necessary because she is scared she stutters. Another reason for Kambili’s silence is that she doesn’t want to anger her father.
At a stage in the story, Kambili says, ‘Jaja, Mama and I spoke more with our spirits than with our lips.’ This quote is carried throughout the novel as one of the most important themes.

Three people that had a big impact on the development of Kambili are Aunty Ifeoma, Amaka and Father Amadi. Amaka has the biggest influence, along with her mother, on Kambili finding her voice. Amaka is seen as one of Kambili’s rolemodels. Amaka and Kambili became like sisters. Kambili gets to see a glimpse of life as a normal teenager when she went to visit aunty Ifeoma. Not only did people influence Kambili, her environment also influenced her. At home, Kambili and Jaja felt trappedin their own house and rules.
When they visited Nsukka they experienced a different lifestyle.
A lifestyle where they felt free. During their visit to Nsukka, aunty Ifeoma took Kambili and Jaja’s schedules that their father gave them, and that made them feel free. This gesture of aunty Ifeoma made Kambili less dependable on her father. This change in Kambili shows later on when she starts to go against what her father tells her to do. В We see the influence of aunty Ifeoma when she tells Kambili to talk back to Amaka when Amaka mocked the fact that Kambili can’t cook. Kambili replies to Amaka’s comment with, ‘You don’t have to shout, Amaka’ (P.170). This was the first time that Kambili stood up for herself. After this incident, Amaka respected Kambili on a new level that she never had. Amaka tells Kambili ‘So you can be this loud'(P.170) and this statement shows the reader that Kambili is getting her own voice.
However, not only did her family play a roll, but Father Amadi also did. Father Amadi unporpously encouraged Kambili to find her inner voice when he burst out singing in the middle of prayer one Sunday. He gave Kambili the confidence to run after him after he convinced her. Kambili told her family ‘I smiled, run, laughed’ and those three things never happened before. Kambili felt free after she had done that. Kambili fell inlove with Father Amadi and that lead to the fact that Kambili looked up to Father Amadi and not her Papa anymore. В Kambili’s stay in Nsukka with aunty Ifeoma made her experience a new environment. She meets new people when she and Amaka becomes friends. One of the new people she meets is Father Amadi. Kambili grows closer-and-closer to her extended family.
This new developments in her life leads to drastic changes within herself. Kambili becomes more vulnerable to openly speak her mind and she learns to stand up to Papa when she went back home after the visit in Nsukka. В Kambili didn’t act rebellious in the way Jaja did when they came back after the visit to Nsukka, but Kambili rebelled in a respectful way. She only said what was on her mind, but she also saw how wrong they were treated before. She acknowledged the way Papa treated Mama and she saw that it was wrong. She found her voice in Nsukka and she matured in the process.

Kathy Benson

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