A 15 year old girl, named Kambili Achike, grows up in Enugu Nigeria.

When her fanatically

religious and wealthy father lets her and her brother stay with aunty Ifeoma in Nsukka, they
get to feel freedom for the first time after their father has abused and controlled their lives.
Kambili starts to find herself and realizes that the mistreating and controlling of her father is
wrong6. In the novel ‘purple hibiscus’, the themes can be seen throughout the book by the
setting, symbols and relationships. The most important themes are ‘The change of
environment can change a persons perspective on life and make someone grow as an
individual.’ and ‘Religion can pull people together, but also push them apart.’. So, The
themes of ‘purple hibiscus’ are mainly about freedom, identity and love, which the author has
expressed in the novel by using different environments and the different views on religion.

To begin with, ‘The change of environment can change a persons perspective on life and
make someone grow as an individual.’. The author has expressed this theme In the book
with Kambili’s perspective of the environments in Enugu and Nsukka. The household in
Enugu is tense and silent, Eugene abuses his family into being terrified of disobeying him. In
consequence of that, Kambili couldn’t develop her own perspective and opinion, because
she was scared that her father would punish her and she didn’t think she needed to. But
once she got to Nsukka, the environment was completely different and she experienced
freedom for the first time and started to find her own identity. Kambili’s character started to
develop, as did her relationships with other people and herself. In addition, Jaja’s character
who went to Nsukka together with Kambili, also developed by going into a new environment.
It was harder for Kambili to get used to Nsukka then Jaja, because she had more difficulty
with betraying and going against all of Eugene’s rules and believes. So, the author has
shown how a change of surrounding can make a large impact on someone’s life.

Furthermore, ‘Religion can pull people together, but also push them apart.’. This theme has
been expressed in the book with the relationship between Eugene and Papa-Nnukwu.
Eugene is a catholic and fanatically religious man, and it is also shown in the novel that he is
extremely strict about the rules of his beliefs. However, Papa-Nnukwu follows the traditional
Igbo religion, this causes Eugene to see his father as a heathen and disown Papa-Nnukwu.
Thus, they are pushed apart because of religion. Though, the author also showed that this
isn’t the case for aunty Ifeoma, she is the daughter of Papa-Nnukwu and also catholic, but
she doesn’t reject Papa-Nnukwu for his religion. This also shows the different environments
between Eugene and Ifeoma, how Eugene supresses Kambili, whereas aunty Ifeoma gives
her freedom. The controlling of Eugene can be seen in the book, when Kambili and Jaja
were only allowed to visit Papa-Nnukwu for 15 minutes. And because of the relationship
between Eugene and Papa-Nnukwu, Kambili couldn’t develop a relationship with Papa-
Nnukwu as her Niece Amaka could. Even when religion can get people to be strong together,
it can also cause relationships to break.

In general, it can be said that the most important themes can be found back in the novel. The
author has used Kambili and Jaja to show how they use the change of environment to find
themselves. And Eugene and Papa-Nnukwu are used to show their differences in religion
and how it affects Kambili. The author expresses freedom and identity through Kambili’s
perspective, and shows how this develops her character.