One safe comparison to write about in my paper would be the relationship between Beatrice's miscarriage in Purple Hibiscus and the loss of a child in "A Temporary Matter." This interests me because of how loss is dealt with in each story; in Purple Hibiscus, Beatrice, who is so excited to overcome the obstacles and finally reach pregnancy, refuses to show her devastation when Eugene destroys the fetus by beating her and just brushes over the topic. In "A Temporary Matter" however, we can clearly see how devastated Shoba really is by her behavior to always keep her mind occupied--to avoid thinking about her lost child--and how Shukumar does anything but just brush their loss off and move on. It is just so fascinating to see how different the behaviors are of the two couples, even though they are encountering a similar situation--why is that so? Is love, both that between spouses and that between parent and unborn child, somehow involved?
A risky and more complex comparison I could make in my paper is the relationship of Victor and his father in "This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona" and that of Eugene and Papa Nnukwu. Both Victor and Eugene have not seen their fathers in years, and so when they receive news of their deaths, they do not actually feel anything but the obligation to retrieve the body (in Victor's case) or pay for the funeral (in Eugene's case). I think it is really sad that their families have been torn apart like this, no matter whose fault it is, and wish that they felt something more than just objective responsibility in their fathers' passing. To me, it feels very wrong that Eugene should completely disregard and stop caring for his father just because they have different beliefs, but at least I know why those two are estranged. What happened between Victor and his father? As this was just a short story, there was no time to really explain the reasoning behind their separation.
The comparison that I will probably use in my paper is that of the relationships between Kambili and Eugene and between Nnamabia and his mother in "Cell One." Rather, this one is more of a contrast; Eugene is not afraid to brutally punish Kambili when he showcases disobedience in the slightest while Nnamabia's mother always babies her son, even if he does something horrible like stealing and reselling her jewelry for pocket money. How is it that someone who commits some pretty horrendous crimes can get off scott-free while someone who is not ranked first in her class is terribly published? Does it depend more on how the parent treats the child than what the child actually does? I'm interested to explore how incredibly different each parent/child relationship is and the many differences between the actions and consequences of each one.
The relationships between all of the characters are really important to the story as a whole. Each one means something different and progresses in a different way. I think your risky topic is a really good one to look at because it is more complex and there are a lot of ways you can take it.
ReplyDeleteI think you would have a lot to work with if you were to compare Kambili and Eugene's relationship with Nnamabia and his mother's relationship. There are a lot of great example's of start contrast that you could pull from each story. I think it would make for a great essay!
ReplyDeleteI think the compare/contrast between Eugene and Victor is really interesting. I hadn't thought about it but now that you mention it I can see it happening. I hope finding the evidence to support your argument isn't to difficult. Best of Luck
ReplyDeleteI think your second option sounds like there would be a lot of good aspects of the stories to analyze. It would be really interesting if you compared the two father-son relationships in these two stories, and used this paper to try and understand how their relationships and experiences were manifested in this reaction to the death of the father.
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