Adichie and How She Uses Her Novels to Spread and Help to Sto Single Stories

Many People in places like the U.S only see Africa in things like commercials, that beg for donations to feed “starving africa”. You can see celebrities posting pictures on their social media with afican children with a caption similar to “it was such a humbling experience building schools for these children”. Many people in the U.S think of Africa as thirsty, starving, and just all around helpless, but Adichie knows first hand that not all of these things that people say are true, for this is not the Africa she grew up in. Coming to America she was aware of all the single stories of her homeland, “my American roommate was shocked by me. She asked where I learned to speak english so well, and was confused when I said that Nigeria happens to have English as its official language. She asked if she could listen to my tribal music, and was consequently very disappointed when I produced my tape of “Mariah Carey” was sung by Adichie herself when she was talking about her first experiences with all the assumptions people have made on her life. Adichie then knew that her novel must inform her readers about what life was truly like in Nigeria. In the novel Purple Hibiscus, Adichie gives her readers a better understanding on what a life in Nigeria could look like, ad help eliminate their single stories of the place she calls home

One of many assumptions and single stories on what life was like in Nigeria is the living situations. For example, many people think that Aficans are in so much poverty that they all live in things like huts or shacks. Adichie helps show that this is not true by using detailed imagery on where the main character of the novel, Kambili lives “I sat at my bedroom window after I changed; the cashew tree was so close I could reach out and plack a leaf if it were not for the silver-colored crisscross of mosquito netting.”(page 8) Mentioning in her writing the “silver- colored criss cross mosquito netting” although a simple thing, it allows Adichie’s readers to connect to small things in their lives, because they are familiar with that netting for they see it on many windows all around the U.S. Another way Adichie uses imagery to allow her readers to picture what a house in Nigeria could look like by mentioning things like the size of the house. For instance Kambili explains that she has a large house with a large backyard. “Our yard was wide enough to hold a hundred people dancing atilogwu, spacious enough for each dancer to do the usual somersaults and land on the next dancers shoulders”(page 9). This shows that not only does the character not live in a shack, but she is wealthy enough to live in a large house. A one sided story of African Religions and traditions can be that they are very tribal, like comment that Adichie's roommate expected her to have tribal music. Yet Adichie writes kambili to be strictly Catholic, which is a very well known religion that people may practice. Purple Hibiscus includes many Catholic traditions like palm sunday. “She would know the palm fronds into sagging gross shapes and hang them on the wall beside our gold-framed family photo”, so that the reader can find it similar to their lives or something that they have seen where they live. Although Adichie does write about a religion that is far from anything “tribal” she does not forget that there are traditional beliefs in the African culture. “Yet Eugene will not let him into this house, will not even greet him… Eugene has to stop doing God's job. God is big enough to do his own work. If God will judge our father then let God do the judging, not Eugene”. This Quote provides clarification including both religious beliefs Adichie provides a more complex story of African Culture.

Adichie does show that Nigeria is actually very similar to the U.S but she does not forget about the ways its not. By only mentioning things like religion and living situations would just be creating another single story of Africa. One that makes it seem that it is just like the U.S when its not. One Africa does have many economical issues and the Government is very corrupt. “I saw the soldier Raised his whip in the air. The whip was long. It curled in the air before it landed on the woman's shoulders. Another soldier was kicking down teays fruits, squashing papayas with his boots and laughing”. Though not many people did not know that this sort of thing goes on in Africa everyday.

Adichie's Novel Purple Hibiscus gives many examples of how life in Africa can very much be like life in the U.S but it is still very different. Adichie uses her writing to form a full, complex story of Africa and its culture. And opens her readers eyes to the fact that they do not know as much about Africa as they think they do.