Behind Closed Doors In Purple Hibiscus And Hamlet

Behind Closed Doors In the two stories Purple Hibiscus and Hamlet, the idea of reality differing from appearance is brought to light when two characters, Papa and Claudius, act completely different around people in the community compared to when they are home behind closed doors. Both stories bring to light the idea that what happens behind closed doors is not what always is true about the person when they are out in public, proving that not everybody is as kind as they delude people into thinking they are. The way people carry themselves in public often differs from the way that they act while at home, exemplifying the idea that often people care more about the way they are viewed by society versus the way the people they live with view

When they fall short of his expectations Papa goes above and beyond to make sure his children know that what they had just done was not okay. Papa has very high expectations of his kids, and expects them to be nothing less than the better than everyone. After not coming first in her class Kambili says, “I was stained by failure” (39). Papa made his children believe that if they lacked perfection, they might as well be considered a failure. Instead of praising his children, and making them have confidence in themselves, he sets extreme expectations so when his children fall short of them, they believe that their father now looks at them with the eye of failure. Kambili has a great amount of fear towards her father, and wants nothing more than to make him proud. She says, “I carried a bigger load- the worry of making sure I came first in the term” (52). Kambili helps demonstrate the amount of pressure Papa puts on his kids, along with the fear factor of letting their father down, often resulting in physical abuse. Not only did Papa use emotions to bring his children and wife down, he would even use physical abuse. Scolding his kids daily, preserved the kids fear. (gerund) After his wife had disobeyed his wishes he beat her so badly that she lost the child she had in her stomach (34). Later, his wife yet again disobeyed him and this time he beat her so badly that “Mama was slung over his shoulders like the jute sacks of rice” as he carried her out of their bedroom leaving a trail of blood behind (33). He would punish whoever disobeyed him or his wishes (noun clause). Although to the community Papa might be viewed as a “family man”, all the emotional and physical abuse at home helps contradict that theory, proving that sometimes people act differently behind closed doors than they do