Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the author of Purple Hibiscus, grew up in Nigeria then continued her education by studying abroad. When she moved from home, several classmates referred to Africa as a country and pictured Adichie living amongst beautiful landscapes and creatures, but that is not the full story. People who were susceptible to the pitfall of a single story made these first impressions. Adichie grew up outside of a university campus on the continent of Africa. However, the people she met later in life had only heard a one sided story on what Africa was like- gorgeous and poverty stricken.
As a child, she often found herself reading books about characters not from her realm- something difficult to relate to. When Adichie wrote this famous novel, she wrote about her own culture, how they lived, and avoided the one sided perspective, ultimately avoiding the pitfall of a single story. Firstly, one of the most evident depictions of a single story is that of Papa-Nnukwu. The first time we see this story is when the children go to visit him for Christmas and their father sets a strict fifteen-minute limit on their stay.
Before Jaja and Kambili leave with Kevin, the driver, Papa tells them, “I don’t like to send you to the home of a heathen, but God will protect you” (Adichie, 62). The children were raised in a home of structure with little religious toleration of the “ungodly” Igbo people, and henceforth, were manipulated to think that worshiping idols is barbaric. However, after their arrival to his house and multiple interactions with him throughout the novel, Adichie shows how Kambili and Jaja begin to realize he is someone they look up to and view both their father and grandfather in a different light- avoiding the pitfall of a single tory.
Secondly within the story, we are introduced to her aunt, cousins, and Father Amadi. Following the newfound openmindedness, Kambili starts to lighten up and learn to laugh. Kambili lived her life structured to a tee and followed a delineated time schedule each day in order to remain at the top of her class. When she receives the notice on her report card that she was ranked second in her class her father says, ‘You ut in your best this term. You came second because you chose to” (Adichie, 42).
After her two-week break from school, her father walked with Kambili into her classroom to see the girl who came in first (Adichie, 46). He then added additional study time to her regime, and Kambili, afraid to disappoint her father, worked extra hard to reclaim her position as the most intelligent the consecutive term. When Aunty Ifeoma urges her brother to allow the children to visit with her, she confiscates their schedules from them (Adichie, 124). “Nne, don’t behave like a guest. Come in, come in,” she tells them upon their arrival (Adichie 114).
Persistent in her efforts to get her niece and nephew to further their happiness and partake in the family, she has them engage in household duties, watch television, and even go out to play games with Father Amadi. For the first time, Kambili laughs and falls for someone. She sings along to the Igbo songs and slowly forgoes her father’s opinion of disregarding the schedule and engaging in heathen ways. The single story was crumbled once Kambili got a taste of the others’ lives. Within the TEDtalk, Adichie examines the pitfall of her own single story experiences.
As previously stated, the author wanted to tell a story of her culture. She had grown up reading books of foreign characters that she could not identify (TEDtalk). When she left her home for school, she overheard conversations about the weather- something she and her associates never seemed to discuss because “it was always hot” (TEDtalk). The single story is relevant in this case because African books were few in number and difficult to find. This being said, her colleagues out of her country were susceptible to the stereotypes of Nigerians.
People often suggested that she lived in a hut, not knowing she had grown up just outside of a university campus and began writing at a very young age. This is a definitive example of a single story’s pitfall. While being away from home, she encountered those who not only thought of Africa as a country, but new very little about the multiple civilizations within it. Adichie was responsible to give her side of the story. Not only was she the center of a single story, but she fell for one as well. As a child she grew up with house workers.
Anytime she would not finish her dinner her mother would say, “Finish your food,” often referring to their family who had nothing (TEDtalk). One day when she went to visit she saw a “beautifully patterned basket” that one of them had made (TEDtalk). After her family had hammered into her head multiple times about how poor his family was, she never thought that one of them could actually make something. Adichie was left stunned after she saw their family from their own village. Her mother unknowingly created a preconceived image in her daughter’s mind that their family was poor and that was all.
There was much more to their lives and story, but it took Adichie a physical trip to their home to learn this. In conclusion, Adichie felt the subtle wrath of the single story’s pitfall both directly and indirectly. Living in a culture then reading about an entirely different one is what she faced at the dawn of her life. She could not identify or relate to the characters or their lives, so as an avid writer she decided to change that. Adichie wrote the novel Purple Hibiscus to counter the pitfall of the single story.
Kambili, in a sense, represents the author. Kambili was raised with the mindset to not associate with her heathen family but soon learned that they were not all that different while Adichie grew up knowing nothing of her house workers other than that they were poor. It was not until later that she realized her single story was only a single story and not the full scenario. Her story telling strategy follows the lines of a revelation of a single story coming full circle to the audience, and thusly avoids the pitfall before reaching the end.
