Katherine’s Reviews > Purple Hibiscus > Status Update

A character I disagree with often is Mama. She tends to make excuses for Eugene, inevitably putting her kids in harms way. Every time someone tries to help, she takes her kids right back to their abuser. But I think that the years of abuse have affected the way she thinks and processes, and it's desensitized her.

A character I often disagree with, Eugene "Papa." He might have been influenced by the person who introduced him to the church, but he's also influenced by Western culture.

During my research, I learned that the setting is 1980s-based, twenty years after the Civil War, and Nigeria is still recovering from the aftermath. This helps me better understand when a coup gets mentioned or the military takes someone, and it makes me wonder why Papa would cover it up since the cover ended up with someone taken.