1) Trace Papa's abuse: What causes it and how do family members respond?
Possible introductory paragraph:
There are numerous issues that many societies tend to share across time and place. One of such is violence, be it on personal or societal level. Nigerian-American author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has investigated this theme in her 2004 novel "Purple Hibiscus" through the Achike family dynamics, especially the father of the protagonist, who presents himself to the community as a kind, benevolent man but inside the family compound is overly strict and controlling and abusive of both his spouse and children.
2) Main types of violence in Purple Hibiscus:
• domestic
• gender
• psychological
• colonial
Discussion:
1. What has made Papa such a violent father?
2. What kinds of things trigger his violence?
3. Why don’t his wife and children actively resist his violence earlier?
4. What do you think of Amaka’s statement “Some people can’t handle stress”?
5. Do you think Mama’s action was justified?
6. Why do you think Jaja wanted to take the blame for her crime?
7. What kind of message does the novel as a whole give us about domestic violence?
(https://www.cram.com/essay/Violence-In-Purple-Hibiscus/FKJJ7T8K5J)
8. How would you behave in a similar situation?
9) What advice would you give each character?
3) Make a 3-4-minute oral essay on the topic you drew in class (based on Purple Hibiscus):
* An exploration of the connections between differing forms of violence in Nigeria after colonialism.
* Gender-based violence manifests in the form of domestic violence.
* Papa uses violence to enforce his own kind of oppression on his family.
* Just as colonialism resulted in a corrupt independent government, so papa's violence compels Mama to poison and murder him.
* Papa is a "colonial product", a man who has bought into the colonial mindset.
* Women of different status are shown to use different means of resisting patriarchy and violence in the quest for liberating relationships.
* Exploration of the intersectionality of gender, class, race, religion, postcoloniality and power.
* Exploration of violence sprung from cultural conflict.
4) Reflection on Violence (1969) by Hannah Arendt
A pair-writing task for your portfolio
Choose one page of the essay on violence that you believe is most representative of her writing style and the main issues in this essay.
Treat it like a Paper 1 text. Come up with your own guiding question, and write.
This will help you recall how to tackle Paper 1: https://philpot.education/mod/page/view.php?id=19
Have another pair read your essay and suggest improvements / additions / alternative approaches.
Hannah Arendt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Arendt
5) Exam preparation:
Find a page-long extract from Purple Hibiscus that you believe best reflects abuse and violence in the novel. Compare this to a text provided in class.
