The Danger of a Single Story

“I recently spoke at a university where a student told me that it was such a shame that Nigerian men were physical abusers like the father character in my novel. I told him that I had just read a novel called American Psycho and that it was such a shame that young Americans were serial murderers.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie “The Danger of a Single Story”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, in her novel Purple Hibiscus, seeks to portray the beauty in complexity, demonstrating the importance of exposing the intricacies of a person, a family, a culture; disabling the label of stereotypes and disallowing application of  “a single story”.  Adichie employs the narrative strategies of language and ambiguity to express the intricate emotion present in the Achike’s family life. By demonstrating the complexity of this family’s life, the intricacies transcend to symbolize the complexities within the culture. The culture, just like the families that form it, are not limited to a single story.

            Adichie beautifully explains the idea of a single story through examples in her own life. She recalls the houseboy that worked for her mother when she was a child. She knew his family was poor and that her family gave them things like clothes and food. One day, her mother shows Chimamanda a basket Fide’s (the houseboy) mother made. Adichie was shocked; realizing her only story of Fide was his poverty. This single story stripped him of him humanity, she forgot that he was a person, that his family was capable of making something. Her pity and limited vision created a single story. Fide was no longer complex or human.

            Another recollection and explanation of “a single story” exists in her experiences in Mexico. As she walked through the streets of Guadalajara, she forgot that Mexicans were anything but “abject immigrants”. The media coverage impaired her vision, forcing her to seeing only a single story.

            As Adichie learned the complexities of people and the opposing single stories present in her own life, she desired to eliminate this ignorance by writing a novel of her own culture and the complexities and intricacies of its people. These complexities live in several aspects of family life, but most powerfully in language and ambiguity. Kambili Achike, the protagonist and narrator of Purple Hibiscus, and her brother Jaja share a private language. Kambili recounts, “We did that often, asking each other questions whose answers we already knew. Perhaps it was so that we would not ask the other questions, the ones whose answers we did not want to know” (Adichie, 23). They are not limited to the single language of the culture.

Eugene, Kambili and Jaja’s father condemns Igbo (the native language) and encourages English (the language of the colonizers), just as he condemns traditional beliefs as opposed to Catholicism (again, the religion of the colonizers). The children are bilingual, a true skill, and the intense implications of the use of each language limit their ability to speak freely and openly for they are required to tailor their speech to situations.

This hindrance develops into a literal speaking problem for Kambili.

“Aunty Ifeoma’s little garden next to the verandah of her flat in Nsukka began to lift the silence. Jaja’s defiance seemed to me now like Aunty Ifeoma’s experimental purple hibiscus: rare, fragrant with the undertones of freedom, a different kind of freedom from the one the crowds waving green leaves chanted at Government Square after the coup. A freedom to be, to do.” (Adichie, 16).

             In a review of Purple Hibiscus, Heather Hewitt describes communication between Kambili and Jaja as “asusu anya, the language of the eyes” (Hewitt, 9). She also presents the fear that resides within Kambili out her relationship at home: “Kambili literally has no voice, and she is trapped in a cycle of self-negation by her adoration of her godlike father and her acute need for his affirmation” (Hewitt, 9). Kambili’s character is not a simple one. She is not stuck in the single story so often presented of African culture. Bingyavanga Wainaina writes a wonderful satire called “How to Write about Africa”. In it he urges (in jest) for authors to describe their characters as “…empty inside, with no dialogue, no conflicts or resolutions in their stories, no depth or quirks to confuse the cause” (Wainaina, 94). Adichie challenges the process in her characters for their inner conflict and dialogue, the language they are forced to use and the language they are forced to suppress.

            The other literary technique employed is ambiguity within situations. This tool used in the novel powerfully portrays the fear and emotion the characters are experiencing, and the true human tendencies when threatening and violent situations occur. Adichie shares,

“I was in my room… when I heard the sounds. Swift, heavy thuds on my parents’…bedroom door…. I stepped out of my room just as Jaja came out of his. We stood at the landing and watched Papa descend. Mama was slung over his shoulder like the jute sacks of rice… ‘There’s blood on the floor,’ Jaja said. ‘I’ll get the brush from the bathroom.’” (Adichie, 33).

That night, after the children clean up the blood, Adichie writes, “Mama did not come home that night, and Jaja and I had dinner alone. We did not talk about Mama” (Adichie, 33). This situation is full ambiguity, leaving the reader full of questions, wondering what has occurred. Though one can make inferences, in the moment, the situation is not discussed. This ambiguity creates intense emotion and tremendously complicates the characters.

            A single story is a dangerous endeavor, for it limits and shelters. Readers are coaxed into ignorance and are not allowed the greater picture of concerns and issues plaguing characters. Humans are complex beings, single stories squelch depth and intricacies.

Works Cited:

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Purple Hibiscus. New York: Anchor, 2003. Print.

Hewitt, Heather. "Finding Her Voice." Rev. of Purple Hibiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi

 Adichie. The Women's Review of Books 21.10 (11 July, 2004): 9-10. Print.

Wainaina, Binyavanga. "How to Write About Africa." Granta 92: A View From Africa

Winter 2005: 91-95. Print.