AFRICAN PROSE
ADICHIE CHIMAMANDA NGOZI: Purple Hibiscus
Assess Eugene’s relationship with his immediate family.
Explanation
Eugene is a prominent businessman, community leader and devout catholic, who governs his family with rigid rules. Eugene does his best to provide all the physical needs of his immediate family and ensures that his children lack nothing.
However, his wife and children and even his father find it impossible to experience happiness in their interactions with him. He creates in them stress and tension and in his presence, they are ill at ease. The attachment to religion makes him a fanatic whose interpretation of faith is oppressive. When Jaja refuses to take the sacrament during Palm Sunday mass, Eugene is inexplicably furious at the boy and ends up throwing a missal at him.
Eugene's oppressiveness in his relation with his children makes apparently normal filial interactions painful and torturous. For instance, at tea time, he invites them to take "love sips" from his tea cup. An experience such as this which should have been pleasant ironically becomes painful since the "love sips" they take are from a scalding cup and they dare not refuse. Eugene's rules for the behaviour of his children are nothing short of regimental. There is a schedule for play, relaxation, work and so on. This makes even playtime unattractive. Anyone who dares to break his schedule is severely punished.
The kind of punishment which Eugene metes out to his children for real or perceived misdemeanour is inhumane. This involves emotional, psychological and physical abuse. When Karnbili fails to take first position in her school examination, he goes to her school and humiliates her in front of her classmates. He pours boiling water on the feet of the children for sleeping under the same roof as a "heathen" who turns out to be their own grandfather, without informing him. As he pours the boiling water on Kambili's feet he is shedding tears. This point to his emotional instability and thus his potential for danger.
Beatrice his wife dares not intervene. She herself is a victim of domestic violence. She is traumatized and also brutalized. One such outrageous attack by Eugene results in her suffering a miscarriage. The children not only suffer from his brutal acts, their emotions are also battered by the fact that they witness his brutality on their mother. This makes their affection for him turn sour. Their reactions are different. Kambili becomes withdrawn and silent. Jaja however breaks out in rebellion. It is his family's growing antagonism which leads to Eugene's murder. All in all, Eugene's relationship with his family is emotional stressful. His wife and children are traumatized by his religious fanaticism. Rather than a caring husband and father, his behaviour towards his immediate family marks him out as an ogre whose outrageous behaviour leaves them emotionally and psychologically impaired.