Dependency, autonomy and child development in Chimamanda Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus

Abstract

Our literature review shows that Adichie’s works, including Purple Hibiscus, recognize gender marginalization in areas undermined by many African authors. These areas includeparenting and child development that determine individual emotional stabilityand social responsibility. This study interrogates the form of cultural upbringing of a child which stifles the unconscious selfhood of an individual whose existential being is subject to both the conscious and the unconscious. The study focuses onthe subtleties of parenting and character formation in Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus. Tracing individual identity models of ‘dependency’ and ‘autonomy, it further investigates characters’ emotional stability and social responsibilityas outcomes of socio-cultural empowerment through child development processes. The study takes a developmental analysis of characters and circumstances that surround each character’s social behaviour in the novel. This is determined using Erikson’s psychoanalytic models of human development and social r\esponsibility (psychosocial principles). Although parental discipline gives more positive results in child development, extremity, domestic violence and social alienation as child upbringing strategies in Adechie’s Purple Hibiscus are socio-culturally counterproductive.