Potential essay topics

I think one safe topic I could write about would be the comparison between the relationship of Kambili and Jaja and the relationship of the brother and sister in Adichie’s short story Cell One. It’s really interesting because both of these stories end with the brother in jail for a crime that he didn’t commit. Yet, the way the sister views and discusses the brother is different—Cell One’s sister is still questioning her brother, wondering if he has changed his arrogant behavior at all and if he deserves to be in Jail, while Kambili knows that her brother is completely innocent. I would look at the communication within the two relationships, the way that Kambili and Jaja are continuously connected, speaking with their eyes, yet at this moment when Jaja is in jail Kambili thinks that “he will never understand that I do not think [Jaja] should have done more.” Yet, the brother and sister in Cell One seem a bit more estranged—there is more tension between them about the way the brother acts.

A likely topic to write about would be something surrounding Amaka’s affect on Kambili and also kambili’s behavior before visiting her aunt’s and cousins/when Amaka confronts Kambili and after Kambili visits—and also why Amaka has this affect on Kambili. I would look at why Kambili behaves the way she does in the “first half” of her behavior (How she always wants to please her father, and how she is considered a “backyard snob”) and then the “second half” of her behavior after Amaka confronts her and try to understand why Amaka’s behavior has such a significant impact on her. I also want to explore the way that Amaka and Eugene have an equally significant place in Kambili’s life, as they both are so linked to the way Kambili behaves.

One risky topic to write about would be comparing the relationship of Eugene and Beatrice (that’s the name of Kambili’s mother…right?) and Eugene and Ifeoma. Both women are constantly influencing Eugene’s life and how he acts and speaks (Eugene is more abusive to Beatrice while Ifeoma is able to cause Eugene to change his mind. I would also examine the relationship between the two women and the way that Beatrice’s actions (poisoning Eugene as well as general passive behavior) affected her relationship with Ifeoma (and what this ultimately says about her relationship with Ifeoma).

Change is good (?)

When papa arrived in the Mercedes, Mama packed our bags herself and put them in the car. Papa hugged Mama, holding her close, and she rested her head on his chest. Papa had lost weight; usually, mama’s small hands barely went round to his back, but this time her hands rested on the small of his back. I did not notice the rashed on his face until I came close to hug him. They were like tiny pimples, each with whitish pus at the tips, and they covered the whole of his face, even his eyelids. His face looked swollen, oily, discolored. I had intended to hug him and have him kiss my forehead, but instead I stood there and stared at his face.

            “I have a little allergy,” he said. “Nothing serious.”

            When he took me in his arms, I closed my eyes as he kissed my forehead.

            “We will see you soon,” Amaka whispered before we hugged good-bye. She called me nwanne m nwanyi—my sister. She stood outside the flat, waving, until I could no longer see her thorugh the rear windscreen.

            When Papa started the rosary as we drove out of the compound, his voice was different, tired. I stared at the back of his neck, which was not covered by the pimples, and it looked different, too—smaller, with thinner folds of the skin.

            I turned to Jaja. I wasnted our eyes to meet, so I could tell him how much I had wanted to spend Easter in Nsukka, how much I had wanted to attend Amaka’s confirmation and Father Amadi’s Pascal Mass, how I had planned to sing with my voice raised. But Jaja glued his eyes to the window, and except for muttering prayers, he was silent until we got to Enugu.

            The scent of fruits filled my nose when Adamu opened our compound gates. It was as if the high walls locked in the scent of the ripening cashews and mangoes and avocados. It nauseated me.

            “See, the purple hibiscuses are abouot to bloom,” Jaja said, as we got our of the car. He was pointing, although I did not need him to. I could see the sleepy, oval-shape buds in the front yard as they swayed in the evening breeze.

            The next day was Palm Sunday, the day Jaja did not go to communion, the day Papa threw his heavy missal across the room and broke the figurines.

(252-253)

            One of the main reasons I chose this passage was because of the way it showed just how much change has happened within the family. From the beginning, even Papa’s appearance has changed. He has lost weight, and his face covered with pimples. But, even more importantly, the relationships between the characters has shifted drastically. Kambili no longer wants to even hug her own father now (albeit he is covered in a pimply rash), while before she would obsess over pleasing him with her actions and words. Kambili’s relationship with her cousin has also changed, as there is now a mutual understanding of each other. Now, they are sisters, as Amaka calls Kambili. Yet, I think the most significant change in this passage is Jaja’s behavior, and the brother-sister relationship between him and Kambili. Kambili repeatedly mentions the way she and her brother talk with their eyes, that their relationship is so close that words are unnecessary. But now, it is as though he is delibreatily avoiding Kambili’s gaze, talking with her, as he stares out the window.

Something has also altered so deeply within Kambili that this place she calls home, the familiar smells and images, make her sick. Looking at the novel as a whole up until this point, I think all of what has happened to Kambili—her experiences at her aunt’s house, her beatings, her attempts to please everyone—have all been working together to reach this find moment of intense change in her life. And, I think the rest of the novel will look at how this change affects her.

Homesick for...?

I wrote my first paper in this class about a man who was “homesick for the rest of the world.” And, I can’t stop thinking about him and being homesick for somewhere that isn’t really home, because I, too, have been feeling that way these past few weeks.

I was born and raised in Minnesota, but my parents are British. Because all of my extended family lives in England, I’ve spent a collection of summers and Christmases in South East England, hiking through grassy fields of sheep and getting my boots stuck in muddy, brambley woods, munching my way through packets of Jammie Dodgers and sharing cups of tea with my grandparents.

YUM

And, despite living there for a year when I was three years old, I never really considered it home. That has always been saved for Minnetonka, the clean and quiet Minneapolis suburb on the lake, the place I’ve lived for the past fourteen years.

 

My home in Minnetonka, MN

Is this home?? Here's the Cathedral in my parents' hometown

My parents stand in front of the church where they got married in their hometown

But now, being away from home has made me question what ‘home’ really is.

I think what I’ve really been clinging to these past few weeks is not exactly a place or a building, but rather just everything that I knew to be familiar. And, what was familiar was my childhood: one full of Paddington Bear and Postman Pat stories, Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five at bedtime, the Sooty puppets alive at the will of my grandfather’s hand, pantomimes and paper hats at Christmas.

Some sketches of what I've been missing recently

Ah, Paddington. 

ps did you know he's got a movie coming out next year??  

Granddad at Christmas in his paper crown...he was never one for great facial expressions

Sooty was a kids tv show about this yellow bear puppet...funny how when you're young you are oblivious to the entirely creepy nature of puppets. 

Good ol' bedtime literature for a 7 year old.

All of these objects manifest a culture which I have always associated with a place—Enlgand—but really, I am not missing a physical place at all, but instead one within my own mind, where my childhood lies. 

The Complexities of Amaka

Amaka’s place in the novel is important because it is her personality, actions, and interactions with others that allow us to understand Kambili.  The first time Kambili mentions her cousin, she describes her to look exactly like her aunt— whom she is fond of— except for that her eyes “did not have the unconditional warmth of Aunty Ifeoma’s” (78). Yet, it is hard to define where exactly this underlying bitterness and anger within Amaka comes from. She is also consistently described through the way Kambili compares herself to her cousin: “I wondered how Amaka did it, how she opened her mouth and had words flow out easily” (99); “Although I tried to concentrate on Mass, I kept thinking about Amaka’s lipstick, wondering what it felt like to run color over your lips” (89) Although Amaka and Kambili are the same age, Kambili looks up to her, perhaps, because Amaka is everything that Kambili wishes she could be— pretty, confident, sure of what she wants.

But, there is more to Amaka than just her beauty and poise—she also carries around a condescending bitterness that forces Kambili to struggle with what she believes about her cousin, and herself. It was not until Kambili visited Amaka that the romantic ideas about hehr cousin began to dissolve. While she still seems to look up to her when they first arrive in Nsukka, the darker side of Amaka’s personality begins to show itself, as when they greeted each other, as “Amaka barely let her sides meet mine before she backed away” (116). And, Amaka’s hostility towards Kambili only grows as they spend more time together, continuously making snide remarks about Kambili’s privileged lifestyle and her shyness. While we know that Amaka holds onto some bitterness, we don’t know why. She may just be jealous of Kambili’s luxuries she has at home, but I think there is more to her behavior towards Kambili (she isn’t as hostile towards Jaja) that will be explained later on in the novel.

I think, in a way, Amaka is similar to Boori Ma from “The Real Durwan” from Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies. Both of these characters are holding on to something from the past that manifests itself in a cynical, condescending view of those around them, even though, based on social hierarchy, they are considered lower class.

The Novel

When I read a novel, I tend to mark up and focus on the same parts that I do when reading a short story, but just in a bit more detail and with a greater focus on the mindset that there is an even larger story behind the small stories going on in the novel.

What I pay attention to most, more than I might in a short story, is the relationships between characters. Because in a novel there is more time to develop complex, dynamic characters, more complicated relationships develop. Especially in The Purple Hibiscus, I’ve noticed that the tension and connections between characters plays a vital role in the novel’s plot—In fact, the novel is based entirely on the tension between characters: Jaja and Kambili, Kambili and her father, Kambili’s father and his sister, etc. Without the connections and conflict, there would be no story.

Also, while the short story’s shortness forces me to feel the need to read it all at once and to almost race to uncover the ending, the novels length makes me stop and notice smaller, seemingly insignificant details with the ending in mind. Because I don’t focus so much on reaching the end, I tend to spend more time noting minor images and details that simply seem interesting, as I know that as I read through the rest of the novel, similar details may come up again, leading to a greater understanding of the novel.