Trauma in Chimamanda Adichie's Purple Hibiscus

The notion that Chimamanda Adichie's Purple Hibiscus (2003) has received a lot of scholarly attention cannot be over-emphasized. Some of the readings of Purple Hibiscus converge around themes that examine the novel as a coming of age (Bildungsroman) tale, a novel on religious bigotry, and a novel that exposes the struggles of a nation and of individuals in the processes of negotiating their identities or their modern selves. Despite the large body of work available on Purple Hibiscus, there is very little reading of the novel as a narrative of trauma. This article reads Purple Hibiscus as a narrative of trauma with the aim of adding to and extending the conversation on the novel as a trauma narrative. This approach raises a number of inevitable questions, one of which is - what makes a work of literature a narrative of trauma? In order to identify the situations that are traumatic in Adichie's novel, this article adopts an interpretive method that combines the literary, cultural and psychological. We argue that Purple Hibiscus engages with trauma on the familial level through its portrayal of the Achike family members' mental distresses – their being witnesses to and victims of physical and psychological violence within what should have been the comfort and security of family life. Although the individual's traumatic experience embodies larger issues of political and historical trauma in Purple Hibiscus, this article is limited to the examination of Adichie's portrayal of the catastrophiceffects of oppression and violence on the individual and personal consciousness.