Post #10: How Reading "Purple Hibiscus" Differs From Reading Short Stories

   Reading Purple Hibiscus vs reading short stories have been mainly a similar experiences thus far, but there are some differences between them.  I don't like to take notes when I am reading a narrative because it takes my attention away from what is going on in the story, and so I haven't done that for either type of reading.  If I want to take a break from reading for a while, I make sure to stop at an actual break in the novel, so the portion I have just read is like a short story and is not interrupted.  However, in Purple Hibiscus, I do pay more attention to the characters and their development, for with more pages, there is more time for them to grow, more detail, and I can really feel and react to the actions of each one.  Because the novel is so long, I find that I have to sometimes to look back at a connection between one part of the story and a previous one, to make more sense of what I am reading, and this was definitely not something I had to do when reading short stories.  I also am more able to make cultural and historical connections between characters and events in Purple Hibiscus; for example, how the father is, in essence, a black man who behaves as if he is white, what with how he is always trying to rid himself of his African roots like language, religion, and thus, the culture.