Purple Hibiscus: List 5

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 251–307 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.
40 words 1074 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. uproot
    pull up by or as if by the roots
    Howling winds came with an angry rain, uprooting frangipani trees in the front yard.
  2. descend
    come as if by falling
    Even the silence that descended on the house was sudden, as though the old silence had broken and left us with the sharp pieces.
  3. brittle
    lacking warmth and generosity of spirit
    Sometimes I wanted it all to be a dream—the missal flung at the etagere, the shattered figurines, the brittle air.
  4. termination
    a coming to an end of a contract period
    “They have given me notice of termination,” she said, without even waiting for me to reply to her “How are you?”
  5. disheveled
    in disarray; extremely disorderly
    He was sitting up in bed; his red silk pajamas looked disheveled.
  6. crumble
    break or fall apart into fragments
    The stairs seemed delicate all of a sudden, as if they would crumble and a huge hole would appear and prevent me from leaving.
  7. stabilize
    keep from fluctuating or put into an equilibrium
    The fire snaked around to the side of the pot, still a wild orange, spewing fumes; it had not yet stabilized to a clean blue.
  8. embassy
    a building where diplomats live or work
    “Haven’t you heard how those American embassy people treat Nigerians? They insult you and call you a liar and on top of it, eh, refuse to give you a visa,” Amaka said.
  9. indigenous
    originating where it is found
    Father Amadi smirked and said, “We go mostly to Europe and America, where they are losing priests. So there is really no indigenous culture to pacify, unfortunately.”
  10. convince
    make realize the truth or validity of something
    I am going to Enugu next week to talk to Father Benedict; I know your father listens to him. I will ask him to convince your father about boarding school so you and Jaja can start next term.
  11. insist
    be emphatic or resolute and refuse to budge
    “When the missionaries first came, they didn’t think Igbo names were good enough. They insisted that people take English names to be baptized. Shouldn’t we be moving ahead?”
  12. valid
    well grounded in logic or truth or having legal force
    What the church is saying is that only an English name will make your confirmation valid.
  13. glorify
    praise or honor
    ‘Chiamaka’ says God is beautiful. ‘Chima’ says God knows best, ‘Chiebuka’ says God is the greatest. Don’t they all glorify God as much as ‘Paul’ and ‘Peter’ and ‘Simon’?
  14. chaos
    a state of extreme confusion and disorder
    When we finally turned into the dirt road with the hand-painted sign that read WELCOME TO AOKPE APPARITION GROUND, all I saw at first was chaos.
  15. jostle
    make one's way by pushing or shoving
    Hundreds of cars, many bearing scrawled signs that read CATHOLICS ON PILGRIMAGE, jostled to fit into a tiny village that Aunty Ifeoma said had not known as many as ten cars until a local girl started to see the vision of the Beautiful Woman.
  16. worthless
    lacking in usefulness or value
    If they are in a good mood, they will give you a visa, if not, they will refuse you. It is what happens when you are worthless in somebody’s eyes. We are like footballs that they can kick in any direction they want to.
  17. heretical
    departing from accepted beliefs or standards
    “Obiora, whoever gives you those heretical books should stop.”
  18. fragile
    easily broken or damaged or destroyed
    Nothing seemed to have changed about him, yet my new, fragile life was about to break into pieces.
  19. agitate
    be an advocate for
    “Maybe when we are in the university you will join me in agitating for optional celibacy in the priesthood?”
  20. rebuke
    censure severely or angrily
    For a short moment, I prayed that the American embassy had revoked the visa, before I rebuked myself and asked God to disregard my prayers.
  21. commiserate
    feel or express sympathy or compassion
    Mama had told Adamu not to open the gates to all the people who wanted to throng in for mgbalu, to commiserate with us.
  22. sympathizer
    one who commiserates with someone who has had misfortune
    Adamu said it was unheard of, to turn sympathizers away.
  23. unravel
    become undone
    Her wrapper is just as loose around her waist, and she ties and reties it often, giving her the air of the unkempt women in Ogbete market, who let their wrappers unravel so that everyone sees the hole-riddled slips they have on underneath.
  24. denial
    a defense mechanism that shuts out painful thoughts
    They think grief and denial—that her husband is dead and that her son is in prison—have turned her into this vision of a painfully bony body, of skin speckled with blackheads the size of watermelon seeds.
  25. regime
    the governing authority of a political unit
    Especially with the pro-democracy groups demonstrating, calling for a government investigation into Papa’s death, insisting that the old regime killed him.
  26. conscience
    motivation deriving from ethical or moral principles
    But it took a few weeks before the interim civilian government announced that it would release all prisoners of conscience, and weeks more for our lawyers to get Jaja on the list.
  27. concrete
    capable of being perceived by the senses
    We went about carrying, but not sharing, the same new peace, the same hope, concrete for the first time.
  28. foster
    promote the growth of
    We do not talk about how much money we have, even after half of Papa’s estate went to St. Agnes and to the fostering of missions in the church.
  29. unprovoked
    occurring without motivation or incitement
    Although I do not believe Jaja would do something like that unprovoked, I have no other version of the story because Jaja will not talk to me about it.
  30. welt
    a raised mark on the skin
    He did not even show me the welts on his back, the ones the doctor we bribed in told me were puffy and swollen like long sausages.
  31. capable
    having ability
    Those shoulders that bloomed in Nsukka, that grew wide and capable, have sagged in the thirty-one months that he has been here.
  32. hierarchy
    organization of different ranks in an administrative body
    Sometimes, I look at him and cry, and he shrugs and tells me that Oladipupo, the chief of his cell—they have a system of hierarchy in the cells—has been awaiting trial for eight years.
  33. justice
    judgment involved in the assignment of reward and punishment
    Amaka used to write the office of the Head of State, even the Nigerian Ambassador in America, to complain about the poor state of Nigeria’s justice system.
  34. pessimistic
    expecting the worst possible outcome
    In her last letter, she told him how Aokpe had been covered in a secular American magazine; the writer had sounded pessimistic that the Blessed Virgin Mary could be appearing at all, especially in Nigeria: all that corruption and all that heat.
  35. formulate
    come up with after a mental effort
    Some months ago, he wrote that he did not want me to seek the whys, because there are some things that happen for which we can formulate no whys, for which whys simply do not exist and, perhaps, are not necessary.
  36. unyielding
    stubbornly unwilling to give in
    He stops chewing and stares at me silently with those eyes that have hardened a little every month he has spent here; now they look like the bark of a palm tree, unyielding.
  37. reflection
    the image of something as it appears in a mirror
    His eyes are too full of guilt to really see me, to see his reflection in my eyes, the reflection of my hero, the brother who tried always to protect me the best he could.
  38. silence
    the state of being quiet (as when no one is speaking)
    Silence hangs over us, but it is a different kind of silence, one that lets me breathe.
  39. shame
    a painful feeling of embarrassment or inadequacy
    In my nightmares, it mixes with shame and grief and so many other things that I cannot name, and forms blue tongues of fire that rest above my head, like Pentecost, until I wake up screaming and sweating.
  40. distant
    remote in manner
    Jaja says a brief, distant “Ka o di” not making eye contact with either of us, before he lets the guard lead him away.
Created on Tue Jan 03 18:11:31 EST 2017 (updated Mon Oct 01 16:13:55 EDT 2018)

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