Quotes Flashcards
(29 cards)
Describing Father Benedict’s eyes, a sense of danger and perhaps a biblical allusion
“His eyes were the same green shade of a snake I had seen once”
Oppressive silence of Papa’s household
“The silence was broken only by the whir of the ceiling fan as it sliced
through the still air. Although our spacious dining room gave way to an
even wider living room, I felt suffocated. The off-white walls with the framed photos of Grandfather were narrowing, bearing down on me. Even the glass dining table was moving toward me”
Sense of liveliness in the student protest, defiance
use of pidgin English contrasts to the English Papa uses
“Shouts and yells accompanied the singing. A solo voice rose, and the
crowds cheered. The cool night wind, heavy with the smell of burning,
brought clear snatches of the resonating voice speaking pidgin English from a street away.”
Contrasts to Aunty Ifeoma’s vibrant “shiny bronze lipstick”
“Papa usually chose her favorite. Dark beige last year. Sand beige the year before.”
Found at Papa’s compound, contrasts to the purple hibiscus which represents freedom. represents violence.
Red hibiscus
“Beige” is a muted, dull color, represents the lack of vibrancy and repression inherent to Papa’s household.
The figurines are supposed to represent Mama and her fragility, Papa’s violence leads to her being in “pieces”
“Contorted” further shows the repression
“It cracked the top shelf, swept the beige, finger-size ceramic figurines of ballet dancers in various contorted postures to the hard floor and then landed after them. Or rather it landed on their many pieces.”
Aunty Ifeoma describes the history of Nigeria and colonialism, it is as though Nigeria itself is coming of age. bildungsroman
“It is like telling a crawling baby who tries to walk, and then falls back on his buttocks, to stay there. As if the adults walking past him did not all crawl, once.”
Cliched truism
Blind loyalty to Papa
“‘God works in mysterious ways.’ And I though how Papa would be proud that I had said that
Kambili’s faith in Catholicism transforms, from the tyrannical authority of her father to the “smile” and nourishing power of “the sun” which Ifeoma’s household nurtures.
“The sun turned whtie, the color and shape of the host. And then I saw her, the Blessed Virgin: an image in the pale sun, a red glow on the back of my hand, a smile on the face of the rosary-bedecked man whose arm rubbed against mine. She was everywhere”
‘Silencing’ on a political level. Papa and the Standard’s political activism seems to actually threaten the Head of State.
“Ade Coker was blown up when he opened the package–a package everybody would have known was from the Head of State even if his wife Yewande had not said that Ade Coker looked at the envelope and said ‘It has the State House seal’ before he opened it”
Papa displays a twisted sense of sincerity in this passage, he genuinely believes this is what he needs to do, even “crying”. Papa also seems to be playing God, deciding ‘punishments’ fit for the ‘sins’ his children has committed.
“‘Kambili, you are precious.’ His voice quavered now…choked with emotion…‘That is what you do to yourself when you walk into sin. You burn your feet,’”
For Kambili, Christianity cannot be separated from the colonial connotations and worship of Western culture that her father displays. Contrasts with Ifeoma who embraces Igbo culture along with her Christian beliefs. “when Papa Nnukwu did his itu-nzu…it was the same our saying the rosary”
“Sometimes I imagined God calling me, his rumbling voice British-accented. He would not say my name right; like Father Benedict, he would place the emphasis on the second syllable rather than the first.”
Difference between the freedom of speech encouraged in Ifeoma’s household and the oppressive silence found in Papa’s household. Ifeoma is proud of this.
“I listened to every word spoken, followed every cackle of laughter and line of banter… She (Aunty Ifeoma) looked like a football coach who had done a good job with her team”
Ifeoma contrasts with Mama in her confidence and ability to stand up to Papa. Here, Ifeoma makes the link between God and Eugene, representing his inflated ego and the role he takes up with his children.
“…But you know Eugene quarrels with the truths that he does not like. Our father is dying, do you hear me? Dying…If God will judge our father for choosing the way of our ancestors, then let God do the judging, not Eugene”
Papa is wealthy while Ifeoma is not, her ‘wealth’ comes from the lively relationship she has with her children
“‘Ifeoma could not afford it.’ Papa-Nnukwu shook his head, ‘Since the father of her children died, she has seen hard times. But she will bring them this year.’”
There is a contradiction in Papa’s beliefs between his repression of his children’s speech and his newspapers’ political speech
“‘They are not like those loud children people are raising these days, with no home training and no fear of God,’ Papa said…‘Imagine what the Standard would be if we were all quiet’”
Papa acts submissive around a figure of Western hegemony
Paradoxical, he’s politically brave yet accepts the political order of the international stage. He asserts authority over his family yet becomes submissive.
“Papa changed his accent when he spoke, sounding British, just as he did when he spoke to Father Benedict. He was gracious, in the eager-to-please way that he always assumed with the religious, especially the white religious”
Parallelism
Symbol of the purple hibiscus introduced
Flowers ‘blooming’, bildungsroman
“Jaja’s defiance seemed to me now like Aunty Ifeoma’s experimental purple hibiscus: rare, fragrant with the undertones of freedom…A freedom to be, to do”
Jaja weaponizes the silence that Papa uses to suppress his family against him
“‘Mba, there are no words in my mouth,’ Jaja replied.
‘What?’ There was a shadow clouding Papa’s eyes, a shadow that had been in Jaja’s eyes. Fear.”
Intersection of colonial power and domestic power
Papa has internalized the colonial mindset that whiteness and Westerness always equals superiority
English > Igbo
“We had to sound civilized in public, he told us; we had to speak English. Papa’s sister, Aunty Ifeoma, said once that Papa was too much of a colonial product.”
“Have a love sip,” declarative, authority
Idea of violence and love being inseparable in Kambili’s household
Foreshadows boiling water scene
“Have a love sip, he would say…The tea was always too hot, always burned my tongue…But it didn’t matter, because I knew that when the tea burned by tongue, it burned Papa’s love into me”
Structure
Novel starts in medias res, in the middle of one of Papa’s outburst
-Non linear narrative both reflects the postmodernist genre, as well as the emotional toll it has on Kambili recounting the events
Amaka’s femininity is nurtured and embraced, while Kambili’s is repressed
“I kept thinking of Amaka’s lipstick, wondering what it felt like to run color over your lips” Kambili
Aunty Ifeoma’s migration out of Nigeria seen as a betrayal
“Why do we have to run away from our own country? Why can’t we fix it?” Amaka
“My new, fragile life was about to break into pieces” Kambili
