85 pages 2 hours read

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Purple Hibiscus

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2003

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Pages 257-291

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3: “The PIECES OF GODS After Palm Sunday”

Pages 257-270 Summary

After Palm Sunday, “everything came tumbling down” (257). Kambili wants it to be a dream because “[i]t was too new, too foreign, and [she does] not know what to be” (258). Jaja barricades himself in his room; Papa doesn’t try to force his way in.

Papa has funded Ade Coker’s child’s treatment abroad since; the child couldn’t talk after the bombing. She can talk now, but later, when Kambili tells Jaja about her condition, he says she’ll never heal.

The university fires Aunty Ifeoma. She applies for an American visa. Kambili and Jaja leave for Nsukka the next day. Life there is hard. Kambili discovers Father Amadi will go to Germany. She walks to the garden, picks flowers still wet with “clean rain” (266), and informs him she wants to remain with Aunty Ifeoma and Father and never return to Papa’s house.

Pages 271-287 Summary

Content with her Igbo name, Amaka is not confirmed when she refuses to adopt a new name—a rule enforced by the white missionaries who initially established the church and rejected Igbo ways.

Aunty Ifeoma, Father Amadi, Amaka, and Kambili finally make the pilgrimage to Aokpe.

Related Titles

By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Study Guide

logo

Americanah

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Americanah

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Study Guide

logo

Apollo

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Apollo

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Study Guide

logo

A Private Experience

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

A Private Experience

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Study Guide

logo

Birdsong

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Birdsong

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Study Guide

logo

Cell One

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Cell One

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Study Guide

logo

Checking Out

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Checking Out

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Study Guide

logo

Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE

logo

Half of a Yellow Sun

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Half of a Yellow Sun

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE

logo

The Danger of a Single Story

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Danger of a Single Story

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Study Guide

logo

The Headstrong Historian

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Headstrong Historian

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Study Guide

logo

The Thing Around Your Neck

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Thing Around Your Neck

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE

logo

We Should All Be Feminists

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

We Should All Be Feminists

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie