Analysis of Ideologies of Religious Intolerance and Patriarchy in Purple Hibiscus

Abstract

Ideologies as beliefs are predominately represented in African literature. Chimamanda Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus is an example of such with different ideological inclinations that this study seeks to examine. Interpretation and meaning given to a literary text have a lot to do with the worldview of the writer. This study, therefore, aims at identifying the ideologies of religious intolerance and patriarchy represented in Chimamanda Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus by using Jeffries’ (2010) critical stylistic tools as its theoretical framework, while insight from Halliday’s meta-function and critical discourse analysis (CDA) are also useful. The study deployed a purposive sampling technique where the data adopted from the text for the analysis is generated based on identified ideologies such as feminist and religious doctrines. The findings reveal personal and societal ideologies projected through patriarchy, silence and intolerance dominant in Purple Hibiscus. Representations of actions/event/ state of being immensely contribute to the overall interpretation and meaning of the text. Material action intension processes (MAI), verbalisation processes (VP) and mental processes (MP) make a significant meaning impact on the reader, so also CDA which identifies power dynamics and its effect in the text. The study concludes that ideologies are important in texts as they help the reader to have an in-depth understanding of the intended meaning and message of texts.