AN EXAMINATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN WAR AND IN TIMES OF PEACE: AN ANALYSIS OF CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE’S PURPLE HIBISCUS AND HALF OF A YELLOW SUN

Abstract

While fiction is not history it is a reflection of the society in which
it is written, hence the popular phrase that literature does not exist
in a vacuum. Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun are novels set
in Nigeria; Purple Hibiscus is set in a time of relative peace where the
nation is not at war while Half of a Yellow Sun is set during the
Nigerian civil war, a time of war. This research examines the two
novels Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun and the violence that
women face. Purple Hibiscus looks at the violence against women in
the home stead in the time of peace, in an environment that exudes
safety while Half of a Yellow Sun looks primarily at the violence
directed at women in the time of war. This paper looks at the
violence against women, the physical violence, the emotional
violence and the violence of the lack of a voice. The feminist theory
will be the guiding theory through the angle of womanism. This
research concludes that while the violence suffered by the women is
often at the hands of the men, the women also enable it by actively
participating in being violent towards other women or by welcoming
the violence with a docile attitude.