Theme of Domestic Violence in The Girl on the Train and Purple Hibiscus: Comparative Analysis

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How do the authors of The Girl on the Train and Purple Hibiscus explore domestic violence within their novels?

The Girl on the Train and Purple Hibiscus are two novels which explore the theme of domestic violence. The Girl on the Train was written by Paula Hawkins. The story follows three women; Rachel, Anna and Megan and their struggles with relationships, domestic violence, motherhood and alcoholism. Similarly, following the theme of domestic violence, Purple Hibiscus is written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This novel follows the story of a young girl, Kambili, and her coming of age. Kambili tells her story of her father’s domestic violence toward her mother and family and how they overcome their troubles. Both authors explore domestic violence in similar and contrasting ways, using techniques such as themes, setting, plot twist, narrative voice, characterisation, symbolism and imagery.

Theme

Domestic violence is the main theme of both novels. Although Adichie and Hawkins explore them with different techniques and relationships, they still deliver a powerful story which evokes emotions of anger, happiness, sadness and love. These novels are effective in the way that they deliver different relationships within the theme of domestic violence. Adichie explores domestic violence within the family. The reader will develop an understanding of how abuse can affect children, parents and other close family relatives. Whereas, Hawkins explores the relationship between sexual relations and how love can play a huge part in shielding the violence. Hawkins explores the effect that domestic violence has on women even if they are not directly victimised. In Purple Hibiscus, Papa beats his wife and children, he tells them that it is for their own good because of their sins. There is a lot of sexism within the abuse. Mama tells Kambili that she has miscarried many times after Kambili was born. These miscarriages were caused by the beatings of Papa on Mama. Similarly, in The Girl on the Train women are the central focus. Anna is the most self-assured as she is married and has a child which is what the women in this novel value themselves around. Megan is partly unstable as she has a child, but her relationship has fallen apart as a result of her not caring for her child. Rachel is the most unstable of the women in the book as she has a downward fall into alcoholism that results in her losing her husband and inability to have a child. The authors focus on the main themes of domestic violence and the role of women in their novels.

Setting

The setting is both the time and place in which a narrative is set. Setting plays a major role in telling the story. The time and place of these two novels are quite contrasting. The Girl on the Train is set in England between May 2012 and August 2013. This is vastly different to Purple Hibiscus, which is set in post-colonial Nigeria, in a city called Enugu, during the Civil War in the 1960’s. The Girl on the Train is set in modern day and has no religious expectations, where-as Nigeria was highly religious and traditional in the 1960’s. This showing that even though the time periods and the place the novels were set are different, the authors show that domestic violence can happen anywhere and anytime. It has not changed in society and continues to get worse if nothing is done about it. People need to take a stand much like Kambili in Purple Hibiscus and Rachel in The Girl on the Train.

Plot twist

These two novels both involve a main character and a minor character in the plot twist. Rachel and Anna are the main characters of The Girl on the Train plot twist while Tom is the minor character. The main characters of Purple Hibiscus who are affected are Papa and Jaja with the minor character being Mama. In The Girl on the Train, Hawkins has twisted her plot so the reader shifts their opinion on the character of Rachel. Tom tried to kill Rachel when she went to see Anna, but instead Rachel defends herself and uses a corkscrew in his throat to kill him. Anna also twists the corkscrew further into Tom’s neck. This being a twist against Rachel. The readers dislike Rachel’s involvement in the plot but once she stands up for herself, she is then viewed in a different sense. The reader may change their views on Rachel and Anna after their violent acts of self-defence, they may see them in a positive way as they have stood up for what was happening to them and put Tom in his place. Similarly, in Purple Hibiscus, Adichie revolved the plot twist around a powerful character and a minor character. Papa is murdered by Mama who poisoned his tea, but she said he was found at his work desk dead. Once the autopsy is done, they confirm that poison was found in his body. Mama tells the children what she had done. This is surprising to the reader as Mama is submissive and under the control of Papa, yet she poisoned him to protect herself and her children from the abuse. Then, after this plot twist there is another. Jaja admits to the police that it was him who poisoned his father. He does this because of the guilt of not protecting his mother that he was feeling earlier, this gets him arrested. The audience will feel happy in the sense that Papa is dead and will not harm Mama and the children anymore, yet they will feel upset in the way that Jaja is now in jail for taking the blame for his mother’s crime. The plot twists in these novels shows that the main perpetrators of domestic violence are being punished and resulting in death at the end because the women had no other option to feel safety.

Narrative voice

Hawkins and Adichie contrast their narrative voice used. Hawkins uses three narrators, each having a different perspective on the situation at hand. Meanwhile, Adichie only used one narrator telling individual story. The Girl on the Train was slightly confusing as there was no chance to deeply understand each narrator’s background story. With there being three narrators with similar stories it got difficult to engage with each of them and felt messy to follow. Purple Hibiscus was an engaging story and having one narrator made it a lot easier to understand what was happening in the story. Hawkins used chapters to separate each of the narrators, but continuously changes between each of them, thus adding to the difficultly to follow the many stories which were happening at the same time and disengaging the reader from the novel. Both novels are similar in which the novels are both in the first person. By being in first person the novel speaks directly to the reader and makes immediate connections. By having three narrators it shows that domestic violence affects everyone and not just one person. However, having one narrator allows the story to be more personal and allows connections to be made with the reader and narrator. Hawkins and Adichie use different narrative voices to convey their stories on domestic violence, although they both still evoke a strong connection with the reader to make them think about society and domestic violence affecting everyone.

Characterization

Adichie has used a coming of age sense. It is known as a bildungsroman novel, meaning that it is about character self-development. At the start of the novel Adichie perceived Kambili to be immature and naive. However, when Kambili visits her aunty she becomes more mature and rebels against her Papa. This is a drastic change to her character. The Girl on the Train has a very well-developed character of Rachel Watson. Hawkins wrote Rachel to be a very unlikeable character. She is a drunk and unreliable character, yet when she is sober, she is determined to uncover the mystery of the disappearance of Megan. She faces her abusive relationship and emotional dependence to be able to take control of her life, then revealing herself as the novel’s strongest character. Both authors have strong leading characters which are developed throughout the story. The reader learns more about Kambili and Rachel in small portions until the end when their truth is revealed, and they have had a change of heart during the novel. These two characters handle domestic violence first hand and the authors make sure they are the strongest characters recognisable to the audience through their personalities.

Symbolism

The use of symbols helps the authors to present ideas to the audience. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie uses the symbol of a red hibiscus which represents Kambili’s life with violence, but also the purple hibiscus which represents freedom. These symbols help to develop the theme of freedom vs subjection. Meanwhile, The Girl on the Train also has symbols used by Hawkins, such as the pile of clothes mentioned in the beginning sentence of the book. These clothes represent death by trains; later the reader discovers that Rachel dreams of the same clothing on the side of the tracks. She believes they were Megan’s clothes from the night she disappeared. The authors use symbols for underlying meanings. These symbols add depth in the novels meaning, both being related to domestic violence and the effects it has on the characters.

Imagery

Different types of imagery are used extensively by the two authors in their respective novels. There are two types that occur frequently; visual and subjective imagery. An example of visual imagery in The Girl on the Train is “…it judders past warehouses and water towers, bridges and shed, past modest Victorian houses…” (Page 16). Hawkins, describing the setting of England from the view on the train, this evokes a mental image in the reader’s mind as to what they would be seeing if they were the character. Hawkins then goes on to use subjective imagery and describes the pain a character is feeling. “I feel his foot punch the base of my spine and I go sprawling…” (Page 382), Hawkins uses power in this quote as she is describing what abuse has been happening to this character in their domestic attack, the reader can visualise what is happening. The reader will delve deeper into the story with descriptions of what is happening in the story instead of being told about it as they will feel a part of the story. Adichie also uses visual imagery. This is done when Kambili is at the prison compound. “The bleak walls have unsightly patches of blue-green mold” (Page 299). Kambili is describing the prison in which her brother is being held. This is effective to the reader as who are visualising what Kambili is seeing through her eyes and can feel the same disgust that she does. By writing in a first-person narrative, the authors are able to describe events that are happening through the narrator for them to effectively visualise what is happening to the character they are connected to. In conclusion, with the use of theme, setting, plot twist, narrative voice, characterisation, symbolism and imagery Paula Hawkins and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explore domestic violence in their respective novels. The Girl on the Train and Purple Hibiscus are a successful representation of overcoming domestic violence in different circumstances.

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