Purple Hibiscus

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Purple Hibiscus: Irony 2 key examples

Definition of Irony

Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how... read full definition
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Answers You Know:

Kambili and Jaja are so connected that they can often communicate without speaking. However, it doesn’t make it any easier to talk about their abusive home life, as this passage suggests:

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.

Chapter 10
Explanation and Analysis—Everything I Do:

In this passage, which occurs after Eugene has viciously punished Kambili, Adichie uses situational irony to show the disconnect between Eugene’s justification for his abuse and the harm he inflicts on Kambili:

‘Everything I do for you, I do for your own good,’ Papa said. ‘You know that?’

‘Yes, Papa.’ I still was not sure if he knew about the painting.

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