Kambili's Relationship With Her Father Quotes And Analysis

Kambili’s relationship with her father is stressful because she fears she won't live up to her father’s expectations. Soon after Kambili got her report card and saw that she took second in her class “written in figures: 2/25”. She knew that “Papa would not be proud” despite all the nice things her teachers had to say about her. But not only did she feel upset by letting her father down, but also the fear of what was to come from letting him down. Later that night, after dinner was finished, Papa instructed her, “‘Kambili, come upstairs’”, this was the moment her fears became heightened. He took her into his room to have a chat and to punish her for her lack of success, but just then the phone rang and Kambili waited, “He did not call me the
The first example we get of Kambili trying to make her father happy comes early in the book while the entire family is at dinner. Papa is already on edge after Jaja didn’t attend mass that Sunday causing the entire mood at the table to be a little different. As they all sat there eating, Mama requested Sisi bring them two bottles of Papa’s new drink his factory had produced. As they drank his new product they all began to compliment it, Kanbili tells us “[they] always did, each time an employee from one of his factories bought a product sample for us” (Adichie 13). We see that Kambili will do anything to please her father in this quote because she tells us the juice was “watery” and that it tasted nothing like “fresh cashews” as it was supposed to. In other words Kambili is willing to lie just for her father’s sake and in hopes that it’ll please him. Later on i the book Kambili gives us another great demonstration on how she’ll do anything for her father to be happy with her. After Mama lost the baby and had arrived home from the hospital, they all sat at the table ready to eat dinner. Papa began to pray for “Mama’s forgiveness” and for some other things. But after they finished praying, Kambili begins to think to herself about the prayer and how “[she] did not think, [she] did not even think to think, what Mama had to be forgiven for” (Adichie 36). When Kambili tells us she didn’t think to think about why Papa had asked for Mama to be forgiven, she basically means she doesn’t question anything that Papa says or does. With this, we can assume that Kambili wouldn’t question anything Papa told her to do, whether it be right or wrong, so long as it made him happy. The final example of Kambili doing anything to make her father happy comes during the same evening Papa through his missal at Jaja but missed and hit Mama’s figurines on the