Violence as a Metaphor for Silence inChimamanda Ngozi Adichie‘sPurple Hibiscus
Violence as
a Metaphor for Silence inChimamanda
Ngozi Adichie‘sPurple Hibiscus
M.Kannadasan
Teaching
Assistant
Alagappa
Institute of Skill Development
Alagappa University
Karaikudi
Gender
violence is a serious problem confronting many societies of the world today and
it is a problem that is almost as old as mankind itself. Also, studies have
shown that in most societies where violence happens there is a code of silence
involving the victim and perpetrator(s) when it is perpetrated (Walby: 1990).
There are diverse reasons why gender-based violence continues to thrive and
these include unequal power relations between men and women, biological
differences between males and females, negative traditional and cultural
practices etc. But despite the increase in the number of victims of
gender-based violence, no conclusive findings have been made concerning this
problem (WHO: 2015). Furthermore, in literary criticism, the area of gender
violence has not received much attention in the Nigerian novel. Therefore, this
study takes a close look at Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‘s Purple Hibiscus as
it depicts various forms of gender-based violence and how they occur. It seeks
to show the dialectics of gender relations and how gender-based violence is
portrayed through the eyes of a female writer. The work specifically seeks to
interrogate the issue of violence as it affects the female. Although there are
diverse scholarly works by many African writers on issues affecting the African
continent like bad leadership, crime, poverty, illiteracy, urbanization etc,
not much has been said about the festering problem of gender violence in the
works of Nigerian female writers.
The
narrative in Purple Hibiscus introduces the central conflict right at
the beginning. Eugene, who sees himself as a devout catholic sets a standard in
his house that does not allow for any flexibility. Rules on appropriate
behaviour at home and outside the home are set. When a routine is violated
contrary to his instructions, Eugene reacts by acts of violence in which his
wife is the principal recipient. An instance in the novel is when his wife is
reluctant to visit the priest after mass because of her pregnant status, beats
her up, oblivious of her pregnant status. Kambili describes the scene thus:
I
was in my room after lunch, reading James chapter five, when I heard the
sounds. Swift, heavy thuds on my parent‘s hand-carved bedroom door I imagined
the door had gotten stuck and Papa was trying to open it. If I imagined it hard
enough, then it would be true. I sat down, closed my eyes, and started to
count. Counting made it seem not that long, made it seem not that bad.
Sometimes it was over before I even got to twenty. I was at nineteen when the sounds stopped. I
heard the door open. Papa gait on the stairs sounded heavier, more awkward than
usual […] Mama was slung over his shoulder like the jute sacks of rice his
factory workers bought in bulk at the Seme border. (32-33)
Kambili gives vivid
description of what transpires when she continues, ―We cleaned up the trickle
of blood, which trailed away as if someone had carried a leaking jar of red
watercolour all the way downstairs. Jaja scrubbed while I wiped‖ (33).
Afterwards Eugene asked the children to recite sixteen different novenas for
Mama‘s forgiveness. Kambili‘s narration of the violence that goes on in their
home is imbued with a sort of naivety consistent with a child her age and
portrays her daily life which entails a constant witnessing and experience of
psycho-physical violence: ―Counting made it seem not that long, made it seem
not that bad. Sometimes it was over before I even got to twenty‖ (33). Eugene‘s
house is a like a luxurious concentration camp where all the trappings of wealth
couldn‘t mask the constant battery and various acts of violence that take
place. His wife, Beatrice‘spolishing of the étagère was her way of containing
her emotional and psychological turmoil after each physical assault. Not even
the pregnancy of a much- awaited child is enough to persuade Eugene against
executing God‘s imagined justice on his hapless and long-sufferingwife whose
physical demands as a result of early pregnancy could not be tolerated. This is
how Beatrice recounts her experiences to Aunty Ifeoma, her sister in-law, who
lives in Nsukka:
I
got back from the hospital today. The doctor told me to rest but I took
Eugene‘s money and asked Kevin to take me to the Park. I hired a taxi and came
here... You know that small table where we keep the family Bible? [Eugene]
broke it on my belly. My blood finished on that floor even before he took me to
St. Agnes [Hospital]. My doctor said there was nothing he could do to save [the
pregnancy]... (248).
In this incident,
Eugene beats his pregnant wife to the point of miscarriage over a domestic
dispute. Her inability to bear more children in the marriage she attributes to
the constant beating and subsequent miscarriages that follows each beating by
her husband. After her discharge from the hospital, Eugene invites the priest
to his house for him to cleanse the house from all unrighteousness and pray for
the forgiveness of his wife‘s sin of disobedience.
Physical
and psychological violence is experienced in Eugene‘s home as well as acts of
resistance as found at the beginning of the novel. The dinner table is where
the order of ritual, including the ―invention of tradition‖ (Hobsbawm, 1983) is
enacted through Papa Eugene symbolically presiding over prayers and novenas,
some lasting for up to twenty minutes. Kambili describes a normal activity at
meal time by Papa. For twenty minutes he asked God to bless the food.
Afterwards, he intoned the blessed Virgin in several different titles…‘ (P.11).
A religious etiquette illustrated in an obsessive compulsion to pray before and
after meals, as well as during the meal, epitomises the pervasion of ritual
activity in this household. These activities also depict the functioning of
patriarchal power.
Of
all the accounts of marital violence recorded in the African novel, none as
been described as brutal or as sadistic as Chimamanda Adichie‘s in Purple
Hibiscus, especially because of its realistic and matter-of-fact narrative
point of view. The dynamics of gender -based violence is treated as the main
preoccupation of this text. The oppression faced by Beatrice, (Eugene‘s wife)
is manifested in the iron clad control her husband has over her, the
contemptuous way he treats her, the eventual violence meted out on her and the
children and her inability to do anything about it. Through the Achike‘s
family, Adichie portrays the problem of domestic and spousal violence as it
happens in the Nigerian Society. She also gives an insight into why it thrives using
the character of Beatrice, Eugene‘s wife. According to a tradition amongst the
Igbo speaking people of Nigeria, the family‘s status is equivalent to the
number of children, and particularly sons in a family. With only two children,
Eugene is in a position where he could take a second wife in order to secure
his order of succession.
Marriage for the radical feminist is not the
answer to women‘s problem, rather they advocate self empowerment. Women who see
marriage as the crowning point of a women‘s achievement come under criticism.
For example, Ifeoma’s student keeps calling the fiancée ―dim, my husband‟ with so much awe that one wonders
if she had achieved some great feat in finding a huband. Ifeoma, however, has
different perceptions regarding marriage. She harbors feelings close to
bitterness when her students move to marry at a young age. To her, marriage
suffocates the numerous chances for women and makes them live like Beatrice,
her sister-in-law. The family consequently becomes a site of oppression for
women.
Also apart from the over
glorification of the marriage institution that the radical feminists argue
about, is the issue of widowhood rites. Using the character of Aunty Ifeoma; a
widow and single parent of three, who despite all odds brings up three children
on her own and also takes care of an aged father as a university lecturer.
Ifeoma refuses to bow to family pressures to observe some widowhood rites on
the chance that she is guilty of the death of her husband. She told her in-laws
to their face that she couldn‘t have killed the husband she loved and cannot
condescend as a literate woman, to observing some barbaric rites. She was able
to get away with standing up to her in-laws because she already was financially
independent and educated enough not to depend on whatever hand outs the in-laws
might want to give her to sustain herself and the children. In contrast her
sister –in-law, Beatrice is weak, without a voice and unable to protect herself
from an abusive husband or protect her children from their abusive father
because she does not have any financial independence and unable to question
certain culturally accepted norms either. Being illiterate and without skills
she depends on her husband for basic necessities and cannot survive on her own
hence her resolution to remain in an abusive marriage.
Violence against women who are too
cowed to speak out for reasons ranging from strong adherence to patriarchal
cultures or financial dependency on the abuser is one of the areas feminist criticisms address with a view to changing
perceptions and behavioural patterns of women in such situations. Beatrice and
her sister-in-law, Aunty Ifeoma, work together in the novel to create a dynamic
and complex representation of the postcolonial Nigerian woman. The women are
essentially opposing models of postcolonial feminism. Beatrice is docile and
traditional, yet finds the strength to quietly rebel against the power of her
husband. Ifeoma is zealous, strong and vocal about her disapproval of the current
gender relations in Nigeria.
References:
Adichie, Chimamanda
Ngozi. Purple Hibiscus. Nigeria: Farafina, 2003. Print.
Bloom, S. Violence
against Women and Girls: A Compendium
of Monitoring and Evaluation
Indicators.
Chapel Hill, NC: Measure Evaluation, 2008. Print.
Butler, J. Gender
Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of identity New York: Routledge, 1999.
Print.
Connolly, P.
Racism, Gender, Identities and Young Children. London:Routeledge,
1998. Print.
Dobash R and
Dobash P. Women, Violence and Social Change. New York: Routledge, 1992. Print.
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