This happens with the help of the motivation and encouragement from Father Amadi, a religious awakening initiated by Papa-Nnukwu, and finally, growing feelings of indignation from Eugene. Throughout Kambili’s character development and religious growth, her agency manifests in which she finally utilizes to demonstrate her growing will against her father. This climax marked her growth and final utilization of her character agency. Even while facing condemnation from the man whose approval she sought after her entire life, she defiantly continues to think on precisely what he prohibited. The kicking increased in tempo, and I thought of Amaka’s music, her culturally conscious music that sometimes started off with a calm saxophone and then whirled into lusty singing” (Adichie 211). She seemed unaffected by the beating as she thinks, “Godlessness. At this moment, her character development has been finalized as she has finally broken the silence she had been constrained into. She not only stands up to her father in this way, but she also continues to defy him by holding onto the painting and picking up the pieces after he shatters it. Rather than allowing her brother to take the blame, as well as the beating, she utilizes her agency and chooses to claim the painting as hers. This occurs in the scene in which she shows Jaja the painting of Papa-Nnukwu and Eugene walks in on them viewing the piece featuring a pagan. Lastly, Kambili’s defiance towards her manipulative father highlights her character agency in Purple Hibiscus. Papa-Nnukwu’s character serves as Eugene’s foil within the novel that ultimately creates religious agency for Kambili and provides incentive and strength for defiance towards her father. She found that because of his religion, he was liberated, though, her religion caused her to feel trapped and silenced. I never smiled after we said the rosary back home. In the early morning she went to watch him worship his ancestors and gods where she noted that “He was still smiling as I quietly turned and went back to the bedroom. Growing up, she had been accustomed to Eugene’s restricting and oppressive Catholicism, but after witnessing her grandfather’s paganism and the freedom he had found within it, her eyes were opened to a world outside of Christianity. Next, when Papa-Nnukwu stays at Aunty Ifeoma’s with Kambili and Jaja, she encounters his religious practices. Father Amadi grows into the first stepping stone of Kambili’s agency as he gives her views of the world and herself she had not yet seen. By showing kindness and acceptance to Papa-Nnukwu, he continues to break the religious propriety Kambili had been accustomed to. He teaches her a different way to be a faithful Catholic while also learning to appreciate herself and live outside the confines she had been bound to. This also awakens her sexuality that begins to push her to deviate from her father’s control. He helps her to assume bodily awareness when he takes notice of her legs, “Running made me think of Father Amadi, made me remember the way his eyes had lingered on my bare legs” (Adichie 284). Here, she begins to acknowledge her feelings for the young pastor, “He had a singer’s voice, a voice that had the same effect on my ears that Mama working Pears baby oil into my hair had on my scalp” (Adichie 135). As their relationship grows, so does Kambili’s character growth and self-discovery. He serves as a juxtaposition to Kambili’s view of Catholicism, introduces her to her sexuality, and kick starts her defiance to Eugene, her oppressive father. Of the most important characters within Purple Hibiscus is Father Amadi. Through motivation of her love interest, religious awakening, and growing will against her father, Kambili exhibits her character agency and likeness to the hibiscus flower. Within fiction novels, characters propel the plot forward with the decisions they make, or their agency. The novel was meant to demonstrate religious oppression and personal growth deviating from that oppression and complications included in that journey. In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel, Purple Hibiscus, a bildungsroman, readers witness the main character’s slow development throughout the story. They lose their leaves deceiving planters into thinking they have died, but in fact, the flowers patiently wait to fully blossom until the end of summer. Hibiscus are resilient flowers, they often bloom when all odds are against them.
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