Purple Hibiscus

• Kambili's journey towards independence is a central theme in the novel.
• Purple Hibiscus, the first novel by writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, is set in Adichie's native country of Nigeria.
• The book is a coming-of-age story told from the point of view of Kambili, a shy girl caught between her father's strict conservatism and her estranged aunt's more loving and tolerant family.
• The story begins on Palm Sunday in Enugu, Nigeria, in the home of the Yachike family, where Kambili, her father, and her brother Jaja watch as Kambili's authoritarian father hurls his catholic prayer book at Jaja for refusing to receive communion.
• The violent outburst marks the beginning of the end for the Achiike family.
• The story jumps back in time as Kambili takes us through the months leading up to Palm Sunday.
• Kambili's father's tyrannical parenting has made her high achieving and withdrawn, causing her peers to think she is a snob.
• Kambili's aunt, Auntie Ifioma, arrives for a visit, bringing her three children, brothers Chima and Obiora, and their sister Amica.
• Auntie Ifioma clashes with conservative Papa about their father, Papa Nuku, with whom Papa has cut ties as a result of his father's so-called heathen belief in the Igbo religion.
• Auntie Ifioma proposes that Kambili and Jaja come to visit her family in Insuka, so she can take them on a pilgrimage to Aokpe where recent sightings of the Virgin Mary have drawn crowds.
• Kambili initially withdraws even further under the scrutiny of her cousin Amika, who mocks Kambili for mumbling and criticizes her as a snob.
• Auntie Ifioma introduces Kambili to the family's priest, Father Ahmadi, to whom she feels an instant connection.
• Father Ahmadi encourages Kambili to speak her mind, showing her an alternative to her father's rigid approach to religion.
• Kambili begins to open up during her week away from home, even growing closer to the opinionated Amica.
• Papa Nuku falls ill during Kambili and Jaja's stay, and Auntie Ifyoma brings him to her home so that she can care for him.
• Kambili and Jaja decide not to tell their father about Papa Nuku's stay as he would never condone them living under the same roof as a heathen.
• Slowly, the siblings began to appreciate their estranged grandfather's pagan beliefs.
• When Papa Nuku cannot seek care due to a hospital strike, he dies in his sleep.
• Papa learns of Kambili and Jaja's lie and brings them back to Enugu where he punishes them for walking into sin by pouring boiling water on their feet.
• Political strife intensifies in Enugu, and Papa's friend and editor of the Standard, Ade Coker, is arrested and later killed by a package bomb.
• Kambili and Jaja take comfort in a portrait of Papa Nuku which is gifted to Kambili by Amica, but Papa catches them with the portrait and beats Kambili so severely that she ends up in the hospital.
• Auntie Ifyoma tells Kambili's mother that she has a responsibility to stop her husband's violent outbursts, and convinces Papa to let Kambili come to Insuka where Kambili's crush on Father Ahmadi intensifies and where Kambili begins to come out of her shell.
• Kambili is crestfallen when Auntie Ifyoma is fired from the university due to her liberal politics and announces that she will move to America with her children soon.
• Mama arrives in Insuka, and Papa has beaten her again causing her second miscarriage.
• Kambili and Mama take the children back to Enugu where Jaja grows increasingly defiant under his father's harsh treatment.
• Papa also seems to grow physically weaker, breaking out in a rash on his face and unable to move the lightweight desk blocking Jaja's door.
• This coincides with Palm Sunday and the events that opened the story.
• Jaja insists that he and Kambili return to Insuka for Easter, and Papa is too weak to protest their journey.
• Kambili dreams of taking Jaja to visit Auntie Ifyoma in America and of the purple hibiscuses at their home in Enugu blossoming once again.