85 pages • 2 hours read
Purple Hibiscus
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Pages 257-291Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3: “The PIECES OF GODS After Palm Sunday”
Pages 257-270 Summary
After Palm Sunday, “everything came tumbling down” (257). Kambili wants it to be a dream because “[i]t was too new, too foreign, and [she does] not know what to be” (258). Jaja barricades himself in his room; Papa doesn’t try to force his way in.
Papa has funded Ade Coker’s child’s treatment abroad since; the child couldn’t talk after the bombing. She can talk now, but later, when Kambili tells Jaja about her condition, he says she’ll never heal.
The university fires Aunty Ifeoma. She applies for an American visa. Kambili and Jaja leave for Nsukka the next day. Life there is hard. Kambili discovers Father Amadi will go to Germany. She walks to the garden, picks flowers still wet with “clean rain” (266), and informs him she wants to remain with Aunty Ifeoma and Father and never return to Papa’s house.
Pages 271-287 Summary
Content with her Igbo name, Amaka is not confirmed when she refuses to adopt a new name—a rule enforced by the white missionaries who initially established the church and rejected Igbo ways.
Aunty Ifeoma, Father Amadi, Amaka, and Kambili finally make the pilgrimage to Aokpe. Despite the question of Our Lady’s appearance, Kambili exclaims she feels the Blessed Virgin and thinks, “How could anyone not believe after what we had seen? Or hadn’t they seen it and felt it, too?” (275). Aunty Ifeoma agrees God is there.
During their last outings together, Kambili tells Father Amadi she loves him. Even though he remarks on her beauty and says she will have many loves, she denies this. When they all have dinner with Father that night there is much laughter. However, Kambili is busy, “locking little parts of me up” (282). Later, they promise to write to each other, and he holds her as she cries.
The next day, Aunty Ifeoma and the children visit Odim Hill one last time, climbing to the top and having a picnic. They all laugh and have a splendid time. That night, Aunty Ifeoma receives the call from Mama with the shocking news that Papa is dead. Kambili has never considered the possibility of his death because “[h]e had seemed immortal” (287).
Pages 288-291 Summary
Back at their home, Jaja and Kambili sit staring at the space where the figurines had been. Mama packs Papa’s things. No visitors are allowed, and Mama speaks more than ever when she informs others of the family’s wish to mourn privately.
Mama receives a phone call revealing that poison was found in Papa’s body. She then admits to poisoning his tea, which greatly disturbs Kambili because of the close connection she and Papa had with the “love sips” of tea they drank together. Consequently, Kambili shouts at Mama, but Mama does not answer, nor does she respond when Jaja tries to draw her close. The police arrive later in the day; Jaja lies and says that he has killed Papa with rat poison, and the police take him away.
Pages 257-291 Analysis
Jaja overtakes the spirit of fear that has pervaded in the house. He emerges as a young man taking responsibility for his own soul, and Papa, broken and weak, cannot fight back. Kambili is disorientated in this “foreign” environment where nothing is familiar and seems like a fantasy. Her dreams often reflect her waking moments.
Amaka is also defiant in refusing to succumb to white ways in the church, mirroring Jaja’s actions in his home. These are not hateful actions meant to exclude or inhibit ideals; they are actions against exclusion and inhibition—ones of inclusion and freedom—performed by a male and female representing the next generation, with the implication they will also continue to teach their children acceptance.
The pilgrimage toward the end of the novel is timely. The dire circumstances concerning the characters’ individual and collective lives require healing and illumination, and they are spiritually ripe to receive blessings from Our Lady, whether real or imagined. Kambili’s faith is the strongest when she feels a spiritual presence; Aunty Ifeoma also senses enlightenment, whether visible or not.
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By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
