ALIENATED AND FRAGMENTED IDENTITIES IN CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE’S PURPLE HIBISCUS AND HALF OF A YELLOW SUN

Abstract

This thesis, ‘Alienation and Fragmentation of Identities in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun’ is an exploration into the underlying cause of neurotic behaviours manifest in selected individual characters encountered in the novels. Psychoanalysis is the framework of analysis using alienation and fragmentation as the tools of investigation to ascertain the mind and thinking process of such individuals in relation to their feelings of alienation and fragmentation. This is because the selected characters are seen to exhibit tendencies that are discrepant and ordinarily abnormal from others at the level of interpersonal experiences. For example, the relationships existing in Eugene Achike’s family in Purple Hibiscus and that between Odenigbo and Olanna and other individuals in Half of a Yellow Sun reveal violent and abnormal tendencies in the characters showing signs of neuroses. However, a reader’s first encounter with these novels is perceived as a reading of past events in the country and exposition of certain ideological issues of culture and tradition. Hence these constitute major issues of analysis in the existing literature as scholars and critics have taken great interest in exploring diverse themes and analytical issues from the texts. These and more critical issues make up the bulk of the literature review. The thesis is organized in six distinct chapters including the Introduction, the Literature Review, the Conceptual Analysis, Troubled Behaviours identified in the characters and Victim’s Victims that explore the characters at crossroads of cause and effect of their neuroses and fallout of such impacting on others in contact with them. The conclusion reveals the fact of the individuals’ alienation and fragmentation resulting from the deep recesses of their minds presenting as repressed memories.