Purple Hibiscus: List 1

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Kambili and Jaja's life among the elite in Nigeria isn't so easy under the thumb of their oppressive father. When the country becomes mired in political turmoil, they are sent to stay with their aunt, where they learn a different way of life.

This list covers pages 1–52 in the 2012 Algonquin edition.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5

Here is a link to our lists for Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. communion
    a group of Christians with a common religious faith
    Things started to fall apart at home when my brother, Jaja, did not go to communion and Papa flung his heavy missal across the room and broke the figurines on the etagere.
  2. parish
    a local church community
    Father Benedict had changed things in the parish, such as insisting that the Credo and kyrie be recited only in Latin; Igbo was not acceptable.
  3. solemnity
    a trait of dignified seriousness
    Also, hand clapping was to be kept at a minimum, lest the solemnity of Mass be compromised.
  4. native
    relating to people inhabiting a region from the beginning
    But he allowed offertory songs in Igbo; he called them native songs, and when he said “native” his straight-line lips turned down at the corners to form an inverted U.
  5. triumphant
    joyful and proud especially because of success
    Brother Eugene spoke out for freedom. How many of us have stood up for the truth? How many of us have reflected the Triumphant Entry?
  6. modesty
    freedom from vanity or conceit
    And I would sit with my knees pressed together, next to Jaja, trying hard to keep my face blank, to keep the pride from showing, because Papa said modesty was very important.
  7. mortal
    involving loss of divine grace or spiritual death
    He always encouraged Father Benedict to call and win that person back into the fold; nothing but mortal sin would keep a person away from communion two Sundays in a row.
  8. secular
    characteristic of this world rather than the spiritual world
    “Wafer” was too secular, wafer was what one of Papa’s factories made—chocolate wafer, banana wafer, what people bought their children to give them a treat better than biscuits.
  9. jagged
    having a sharply uneven surface or outline
    Jaja knelt beside Mama, flattened the church bulletin he held into a dustpan, and placed a jagged ceramic piece on it.
  10. swell
    expand abnormally
    The last time, only two weeks ago, when her swollen eye was still the black-purple color of an overripe avocado, she had rearranged them after she polished them.
  11. limp
    walk unevenly due to pain, injury, or weakness
    She limped slightly, as though one leg were shorter than the other, a gait that made her seem even smaller than she was.
  12. intone
    recite musically; recite as a chant or a psalm
    Afterward, he intoned the Blessed Virgin in several different titles while we responded, “Pray for us.”
  13. compliment
    express respect or esteem for
    He was supposed to say something now, to contribute, to compliment Papa’s new product.
  14. colonial
    a resident of an area controlled by a distant country
    Papa’s sister, Aunty Ifeoma, said once that Papa was too much of a colonial product.
  15. figurine
    a small carved or molded figure
    Maybe Mama had realized that she would not need the figurines anymore; that when Papa threw the missal at Jaja, it was not just the figurines that came tumbling down, it was everything.
  16. defiance
    an act boldly resisting authority or an opposing force
    Jaja’s defiance seemed to me now like Aunty Ifeoma’s experimental purple hibiscus: rare, fragrant with the undertones of freedom, a different kind of freedom from the one the crowds waving green leaves chanted at Government Square after the coup.
  17. indulgent
    tolerant or lenient
    Mama shook her head and smiled, the indulgent smile that stretched across her face when she talked about people who believed in oracles, or when relatives suggested she consult a witch doctor, or when people recounted tales of digging up hair tufts and animal bones wrapped in cloth that had been buried in their front yards to ward off progress.
  18. mysterious
    beyond ordinary understanding
    “They do not know that God works in mysterious ways.”
  19. meticulously
    in a manner marked by extreme care of details
    Papa liked order. It showed even in the schedules themselves, the way his meticulously drawn lines, in black ink, cut across each day, separating study from siesta, siesta from family time, family time from eating, eating from prayer, prayer from sleep.
  20. martial
    suggesting war or military life
    Papa had just checkmated Jaja when we heard the martial music on the radio, the solemn strains making us stop to listen.
  21. coup
    a sudden and decisive change of government by force
    Coups begat coups, he said, telling us about the bloody coups of the sixties, which ended up in civil war just after he left Nigeria to study in England.
  22. corrupt
    dishonest or immoral or evasive
    Of course, Papa told us, the politicians were corrupt, and the Standard had written many stories about the cabinet ministers who stashed money in foreign bank accounts, money meant for paying teachers’ salaries and building roads.
  23. deliver
    free from harm or evil
    “God will deliver us,” I said, knowing Papa would like my saying that.
  24. demonstrator
    someone participating in a public display of group feeling
    Our branches never looked as bright as the demonstrators’, though, and sometimes as we drove past, I wondered what it would be like to join them, chanting “Freedom,” standing in the way of cars.
  25. benediction
    a blessing or ceremonial prayer invoking divine protection
    Our steps on the stairs were as measured and as silent as our Sundays: the silence of waiting until Papa was done with his siesta so we could have lunch; the silence of reflection time, when Papa gave us a scripture passage or a book by one of the early church fathers to read and meditate on; the silence of evening rosary; the silence of driving to the church for benediction afterward.
  26. thwart
    hinder or prevent, as an effort, plan, or desire
    He prayed for the food first, then he asked God to forgive those who had tried to thwart His will, who had put selfish desires first and had not wanted to visit His servant after Mass.
  27. execution
    putting a condemned person to death
    I told Jaja what a girl in my class had said: that her mother turned their TV off, asking why she should watch fellow human beings die, asking what was wrong with all those people who had gathered at the execution ground.
  28. vulnerable
    capable of being wounded or hurt
    His eyes were swollen and red, and somehow that made him look younger, more vulnerable.
  29. fragment
    a piece broken off or cut off of something else
    Her eyes were vacant, like the eyes of those mad people who wandered around the roadside garbage dumps in town, pulling grimy, torn canvas bags with their life fragments inside.
  30. stale
    lacking freshness, palatability, or showing deterioration
    Some of the holy water landed on my lips, and I tasted the stale saltiness of it as we prayed.
  31. baron
    a very wealthy or powerful businessman
    I knew his arrest was because of the big cover story in the last Standard, a story about how the Head of State and his wife had paid people to transport heroin abroad, a story that questioned the recent execution of three men and who the real drug barons were.
  32. desolate
    crushed by grief
    Jaja said that when he looked through the keyhole, Papa was holding Yewande’s hand and praying, telling her to repeat “none of those who trust in Him shall be left desolate.”
  33. turbulence
    a state of violent disturbance and disorder
    He lumbered upstairs, each heavy step creating turbulence in my head, and went into Jaja’s room.
  34. acknowledge
    declare to be true or admit the existence or reality of
    I wanted to say I came second so that he would know immediately, so that I would acknowledge my failure, but instead I said, “Yes,” and handed him the report card.
  35. urge
    push for something
    That night, when Papa prayed, he added longer passages urging God to bring about the downfall of the Godless men ruling our country, and he intoned over and over, “Our Lady Shield of the Nigerian People, pray for us.”
  36. demolish
    destroy completely
    When we got into the car, Kevin told Mama that the soldiers had been ordered to demolish the vegetable stalls because they were illegal structures.
  37. missionary
    someone who attempts to convert others to a doctrine
    I had heard this all before, how hard he had worked, how much the missionary Reverend Sisters and priests had taught him, things he would never have learned from his idol-worshiping father, my Papa-Nnukwu.
  38. faithful
    loyal and reliable
    Finally, stuttering, I said, “I pledge to Nigeria, my country/To be faithful, loyal, and honest...”
  39. confession
    the act of a penitent disclosing sinfulness before a priest
    “I just like running,” I said, and wondered if I would count that as a lie when I made confession next Saturday, if I would add it to the lie about not having heard Mother Lucy the first time.
  40. steady
    support and make steadfast
    It was like balancing a sack of gravel on my head every day at school and not being allowed to steady it with my hand.
Created on Tue Jan 03 17:00:21 EST 2017 (updated Mon Oct 01 16:07:36 EDT 2018)

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