
































Ideational Representation of Domestic Violence in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and
Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus

Ifeoma Akabuike

Abstract

Language is a means of representing and portraying real and imaginary events, ideas, and
relations or states of being. This paper is a linguistic study of ideational meanings in the novels
under study.The aim of this paper is to find out how the writer’s linguistic choices serve as a
means through which social meanings and experiences are expressed and understood using
Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics Theory. This study offers explanations for the lexico-
grammatical choices the authors made and how they are analyzed to portray the intended
meaning of the authors. The study adopted both quantitative and qualitative methods to study the
problem. The data comprise twenty-five (25) clauses purposively culled from the novels. Textual
data were analyzed based on the aim/objectives of the study and the theoretical framework
adopted. The study reveals that both authors used material and mental processes to depict the
participants’ physical and mental ordeal (domestic violence) in the hands of a man she calls
father/husband. The study recommends that further investigations should focus on the
interpersonal and textual meanings of the same studied excerpts to help in getting to the core
meanings embedded therein.

Keywords: Ideational meaning, SFL, process types, domestic violence, gender.



Introduction

Language enables its users to express knowledge of their cultural and social world, including the
day to day activities in the home and society. Literary texts contain the speakers’/writers’
experiences and worldviews; that is, the aspect of the reality the literary writers wish to portray.
African literature is a general exploration of linguistic features and/or treatment of how language
is strategically used to better express thematic preoccupations of writers. Therefore, this study
examines ideation as a linguistic tool for inferring or retrieving the social meanings encoded in
the novels under study adopting the theoretical framework of Halliday’s Systemic Functional
Linguistics. In essence, the study investigates how Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Adichie
have employed language in their novels Things Fall Apart (TFA) and Purple Hibiscus (PH)
respectively, to project the unique ideological configurations of gender and domestic violence in
their attempt to represent the goings on in society.

The study will also identify the forms, causes, effects and how to curb this social vice eating up
society known as domestic violence. In the sections that follow, the concept of gender based
domestic violence will be reviewed, the data for the study will be presented, analyzed, discussed
and findings presented and finally, conclude the paper.

Gender-Based Domestic Violence

In this paper, the different definitions of domestic violence will be reviewed. Different authors
give various definitions of domestic violence. To Nwankwo (2003), it refers to “a violation of
human rights”, and refers to any abusive treatment of one’s family member by another, thus,
violating basic human rights. Oyelade (2012) agreeing with Nwankwo adds that “it’s physical,
sexual, emotional, economic, psychological action or threats that influence another person. It
includes any behavior that isolates, frightens, terrorizes, threatens, hurts, injures or wounds and
controls another person negatively. This shows that domestic violence is the intentional and
persistent abuse of anyone in the home in a way that causes pain, distress or injury. Similarly, De
Vries (2002) asserts that “violence is an illegitimate force that is exerted physically or otherwise
by one thing, event, group or person and perhaps, word and object on another”. Clearly, Scott
and Marshal (2009) note that “domestic violence is specifically male violence (physical or
psychological) against women”.

The definition of domestic violence by Scottland and Marshal above show that there is a
disparity in the victimization and experience of violence between male and female. In Nigeria
and beyond, females usually, are victims of domestic violence. The males are the major petrators
of this crime while the females are usually at the receiving end. This situation is predominant in
societies where patriarchy is cultural like the case of Nigeria. To this effect, Cutterman (1991)
notes that gender based violence is an “economical, physical, social and mental suffering
imposed on women by their gender counterpart” – All these violation of the fundamental human
rights of women “wears many faces’



Forms of Domestic Violence

Domestic violence against women has many forms which include, physical violence, sexual
violence, economic coercion, emotional and verbal abuses. These forms of violence according to
WHO (2005) include hitting, slapping, beating, throwing of objects, pushing, kicking, shooting,
choking/burning, suffocating, and strangling. Sexual violence includes, being physically forced
to have sexual intercourse.

Verbal, emotional and psychological violence involve using degrading language, insult, criticism
or name calling, screaming, harassing, refusing to talk, humiliating the victim privately or in the
presence of other people, blaming the victim for the abusive behavior, controlling where the
victim goes, who he/she talks to and what he/she does, accusing the victim of infidelity to justify
the dictators controlling and abusive behaviours.

Economic coercion includes preventing the victim from obtaining employment or education,
withholding money or prohibiting access to family income thereby, making the victim ask or beg
for money, stealing money, refusing to share or contribute to household bills, and treating the
victim like a servant.

A combination of factors contributes to the high rate of domestic violence in Nigeria which
includes low tolerance and refusal of wife to submit to husband’s authority. Peace and Paymer
(1993) assert that “inequality of women and gender socialization of females and males contribute
to the causes of domestic violence”. The cultural practices across Nigeria, position men as the
head of the family and a semi-god; men are viewed as leaders, they have absolute control over
women and no one dares to question their authority. Again, sexual misconduct by either of the
couple, conflict between work and domestic duties by wives, high level of ignorance, poverty,
anger, jealousy and interference by in-laws among other things could be possible causes of
domestic violence. All these factors can be avoided because of their adverse effects on the victim.

Adekola and Falase (2006) opine that women facing domestic violence often suffer physical and
psychological consequences which usually affect their behavior and productivity. They also
revealed that domestic violence negatively correlates with women participation in community
development.

The impact of domestic violence on victims can result in acute and chronic mental health
problems, death, divorce, aggressiveness, apprehension or fear, state of helplessness, anger,
anxiety, depression and suicide. Violence against women is a universal problem that must be
universally condemned as it would be difficult to find one woman, whom at one point or another
in her life, had not been intimidated, humiliated, abused and so on.

This paper is set out to examine the choices made by Achebe and Adichie in the novels under
study to show how the authors represented violence in the families of Okonkwo in Things Fall
Apart and Papa Eugene Achike in Purple Hibiscus. In analyzing the ideational meaning in the



selected novels, the paper will examine the lexico grammatical choices the authors made and
how they reflect the experiences of reality of the writers. The study will among other things, find
out the numerous expressions that reflect domestic violence in the novels, identify the process
types found in the clauses and their frequency and highly the extent to which the ideational
metafunction as a linguistic tool can infer and reveal theme of a novel. The essence of this study
is to get at the intended meaning of the authors easily and clearly.

The study will expose the students, readers and teachers to how clauses are analyzed using the
framework of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) to arrive at meaning of the text easily. This is
possible because SFL prioritizes systems such as mood, aspect and transitivity and the delicate
meanings and features that realize them. Also, this paper will help the reader appreciate the
creativity, beauty and style of writing of Nigerian authors.

This paper will focus on the semantic and lexico-grammatical features of the clauses in the
selected novels using the framework of systemic functional linguistics by Michael Halliday. The
reason is to find out how the process type of the verbal group of the clause, the participants and
circumstances found in the clauses have helped in bringing out the meaning intended by the
writers for easy understanding of the novels. The analysis of a major theme in the novels using a
linguistic tool will help the reader to expand his or her knowledge of the novels under study. It
will further explain what the writers want the reader to know and also reveal some meanings for
grounded.

The ideational metafunction is that part of SFL which deals with how language is used to encode
our cultural and individual experiences. It also deals with the expression of environmental
phenomenon through actions, events, states, relations, attributes as well as expression of our
inner consciousness. In a nutshell, transitivity expresses process, participants, and the
circumstances. Hence, its application on the theme of the novels will reveal actions, events
among others that the writer used words to represent. Hence, its application to theme of the
novels is a step in the right direction.

Methodology

This study aims at examining ideation as a linguistic tool for inferring or retrieving the social
meanings encoded in the novels under study. In line with the aim of this study, two excerpts
(twenty five clauses from each novel) 25 excerpts have purposively been selected and analyzed
in the light of SFL (transitivity) theoretical framework the ideational (experiential) meaning
theoretical framework to show how the authors have linguistically encoded meanings through the
lexico-grammatical choices made to portray gender based domestic violence in their novels. This
study is a combination of both qualitative and quantitative research. Hence, it will adopt a textual
analytic method. Textual data will be analysed in line with the purpose of the study and
theoretical framework adopted. The data will be orderly arranged and presented in tables to
display the frequency of the process types in compact form for further analysis and clearer



interpretations. The study through the analysis, discussion and findings will reveal the message
the authors conveyed. The two excerpts were analysed in line with the Systemic Functional
Linguistic framework. As a descriptive research, the study adopted both qualitative (to aid in
obtaining the frequency of the process types) and qualitative method which provided avenues to
revealing meanings. The frequency of occurrence the process type will be obtained through
simple percentage.

Theoretical Framework

The study relies on M.A.K. Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFI). Halliday (1994)
identified three ‘meaning potentials’- ideational, interpersonal, and textual and named them
‘meta-function’. For Halliday, these meta-functional lines are unified within the structure of a
clause and language is viewed as a meaning-making resource and involves exchange of
meanings in a social context. The focus of this study is on ideational (experiential) meaning.

Experiential meaning according to Eggins (2004) has to do with the grammatical resources of
people. According to Halliday and Matthiessen (2004). “The ideational metafunction is the
function through which the speaker or writer embodies in language his experience of the
phenomena of the real world; and this includes his experience of the internal world of his own
consciousness; his actions, cognitions and perceptions and his linguistic acts of speaking and
understanding”. Again, Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) view experiential meaning as one that
reflects the contextual value of ‘field’ through participants, circumstance and process types
(material, mental, relational, verbal behavioral and existential).

The ideational meta-function is sub-divided into two, namely –experiential and logical.
Experiential meaning expresses the happenings, the content – worldviews/experiences of reality
which is understood through such questions as, who is doing what? To whom, where and when?
The logical on the other hand deals with the ways in which clauses are connected to each other.
First, they are connected through a system that describes the type of interdependency between
clauses.

Secondly, the logico-semantic system describes the type of meaning relationship between linked
clauses (Eggins, 2004).At the lexico-grammatical level, ideational meanings are expressed
through transitivity.

Transitivity Analysis of Selected Excerpts

As mentioned earlier, the two sets of excerpts analyzed have been drawn from the novels under
study. While first section of the excerpt (comprises 25 clauses) from Achebe’s Things Fall Apart,
the second section of the excerpt was culled from Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus”.(25 clauses) Each
of the selected excerpt has been divided into its constituent clauses. Again, the process in each
clause and their frequency are noted.



Table 1 below shows the statistical summary of the number of processes in the selected excerpts
(See Appendix A)

Table 1: Statistical Summary of Process Recorded in the Excerpts

Process Types/Participants TFA Percentage PH Percentage
1 Material

Actor
Goal

14 56% 10 40%

2 Relational
Carrier
Attribute

2 8% 3 12%

3 Mental
senser

6 24% 5 20%

4 Verbal
Verbiage
Sayer
Recipient

3 12% 4 16%

5 Behavioural
Behaver
Existential
Exis

- - 3 12%

The statistical summary of process type table above shows an overview of the transitivity
features as evident in the excerpts from the two novels. A careful look at the results obtained
reveals that Existential process did not reflect at all in the two novels. Behavioural process type
reflected only in Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus but not in Things Fall Apart.

The most predominant process type in the overall excerpts is the material followed by mental
and verbal. In these process types and in the overall excerpts, materials processes are noticeably
topping the list with an aggregate number of twenty four (24) out of fifty (50) processes
representing 48% of the overall process types recorded in the novels under study. This implies
that the two writers have carefully chosen some words to represent concrete/physical actions and
experiences of reality through their characters. Mental process ranked second with 22% of the
overall recorded processes. This suggests that the participants in both excerpts are perceptively,
cognitively, affectively and intellectually involved in the matters dealt with by the authors.
Verbal processes came third with a total number of seven processes and 14% recorded. This
indicates that the texts deal largely with verbal actions. The ‘sayings’ were majorly reported or
quoted. Next is the relational process types which appeared five (5) times viz 10% and lastly,
behavioural process which only appeared three (3) times vix 6%. Owing to the insignificant
number of the relational and behavioral processes, they will cease to be mentioned.

Discussion



This section presents a deeper interpretation and understanding of the novels under study. The
interpretation of the results obtained is going to revolve round the material, verbal and mental
processes along with their respective participants and attending circumstances.

The result shows the domination of material process in the novels. Material process represents
the doings, happenings and actions of the characters as depicted by the authors in the novels.
Their predominance in the excerpts show that the authors prioritized realistic actions in the
novels. Achebe in Things Fall Apart, made use of effective material processes than ineffective
material process. Some of the examples of the effective material processes are seen in excerpts 3,
17 and 18.

Example

1. Okonkwo (Actor( bit) (material) his lips (goal)

2. When she returned (cir: Time) he (Actor) beat (material) her (goal) very heavily
(Cir:manner)

Achebe in examples 1 and 2 above made the choice of material processes like ‘bit’ and ‘beat’
which are highly effective and goal oriented, to show how the actions of his major character in
the novel, Okonkwo, affected Okonkwo’s tongue and wife.

Similarly, Adichie used, material processes like ‘lowered’ ‘titled’ and ‘poured’ which are active
to represent concrete physical actions of Papa Eugene Achike against his daughter Kambili for
sleeping under the same roof with her grandfather (Papa Nnukwu) who happens to be a heathen.
For instance:

3. He (Actor) lowered (material) the kettle (goal) into the tub (cir: location).

4. Tilted (material) it (goal) towards myfeet (Cir:location)

5. He (Actor) Poured (material) the hot water (goal) on my feet (cir: location), slowly (cir:
manner).

In excerpts 24, 25 and 26, the characters were also seen as the ‘Actor’ and used a singular
pronoun ‘I’ showing that the participants are directly involved. For instance,

6. I (Actor) shall not eat (material) in the house of a man (cir:location) who has no respect
for our gods and ancestors.

7. I (Actor) stepped (material) into the hub (cir:location). However, processes like shall
not eat and stepped did not extend any action to other entities in the clause.



Achebe and Adichie, through the lexico-grammatical choices of ‘beat’ and ‘poured’ revealed the
violent actions of Okonkwo against the wife and Papa Eugene against his daughter. This
indicates that transitivity choices can reveal theme of a novel. I will at this point, state that the
novels under study have theme of domestic violence. Again, through the actions performed by
Papa Eugene, Adichie is showing how fanaticism can be deadly.

The use of mental processes like ‘saw’, felt, heard, notice, watched and material processes like
‘beat’, poured, tilted, depicts the victims physical and mental ordeal in the hands of a man she
calls father/husband. The psychological damage the victims sustained in these awful encounters
informed their passive attitude in the novels.

The verbal process deals with the process of saying or telling. They indicate speech “a kind of
inner speech’ (Bloor and Bloor, 1995). Typical verbs as verbal processes in the novels under
study are ‘asked’, ‘said’. Their use in the novels is meaningful (act) of communication). There
are however other verbs used as verbal process to express different shades of meaning and
function as speech acts with illocutionary force indicating the way the writer wants his utterance
to be understood. Such verbs are ‘declare, shouted, threatened, thundered, roared…’ the
participants in the verbal process are the sayer, verbiage and receiver/recipient. Instances of
verbal process in the novels are:

8. “Where is Ojiugo?” (verbiage) he (sayer) asked (verbal) his second wife (reserver)

9. “You knew your grandfather was coming to Nsukka” (verbiage) did you (receiver) he
(sayer) asked (verbal) in igbo (cir:manner).

The leading functions of participants in the novels are “Actor” and “goal”. Halliday (2004) notes
that these participants enact various roles and functions in association with the material process
to represent experiences, actions, and activities in the society/family like ‘beating’, ‘pouring’.
‘Actor’ is the one who is the doer of the action in a clause whereas ‘goal’ is that entity that is
affected by the action of the verb in a clause. Actor enacts as subject while the goal enacts as the
object. In the novels examined, the actions of Okonkwo and Papa Eugene Achike were highly
effective while the actions of Kambili were ineffective. The reason is because of the transitivity
choices the authors made in describing the actions of the male characters in the stories. This
helped in bringing out unequal and sharply skewed distribution of power among different
characters. While the female is shown as powerless and ineffective, the males exert their power
and domination over the females. The transitivity pattern of the authors are in complete
consonance to represent the experiential world of the stories.

In addition, senser, according to Halliday and Matthiessien (2004), is one of the functions of
participant which is associated with mental process. The Sensers involved in the mental activities
are ‘saw, felt, know, heard, notice’ among others. The implication or rather the function of these
participants is that the authors through the participants, made the readers to feel and learn from



the evils prevailing by the severe stressful period the participants were going through and think
of sustainable solutions so that Nigeria can systematically get cured of its social vices.

The authors used the verbiage to depict what was said (the message): ‘Sayer’ as person or thing
that does the saying. ‘Saying’ as revealed in the result is mainly by humans. The
‘Reciever/Recipient” is the one to whom the verbalization is addressed. In essence, verbiage is
the content of what is said, whether direct or reported and recipient is the receiver of the
utterance.

The most frequently used circumstance in the two novels are location and manner. The authors
used location to show the very position (setting) where the action took place. They also used the
circumstance of ‘manner’ to describe the way the evil (action) was carried out.

Conclusion

The study examined ideation as a linguistic tool for inferring or retrieving the social meanings
encoded in the texts under study. The theme of gender-based domestic violence was explored in
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus. The social evil of domestic violence
is rampant in Nigeria and has been of great concern to governments, individuals and groups.
Literary discourse as a form of representation also draws attention to this same phenomenon.
Consequently, a linguistic study of ideational meanings in the texts under study enables the
analyst to find out how the writer’s linguistic choices serve as a means through which social
meanings and experiences can be expressed and understood.

The study explored instances of violence against women in the Things Fall Apart and Purple
Hibiscus which ranges from battering to near homicide especially in Okonkwo’s family and Papa
Eugene Achike’s family. Battering of the female folk by Okonkwo and Papa Eugene led to their
downfall from heights they had attained. For instance, Papa Eugene’s wife had to poison
Eugene’s food with the slightest opportunity she had which led to Eugene’s untimely death when
she remembered how harshly he maltreated her. Wife /daughter battering among the Igbos is not
condoned. The authors, through the lexico-grammatical choices they made, were able to portray
and arrive at this gender-based violence in the novels.

Preventing domestic violence against women requires sustained and systematic efforts at the
levels of families and relationships, communities, institutions and societies. Men should be
oriented on the dangers of domestic violence.

References

Achebe C. (1958). Things fall apart. England: Hienemann Ltd.

Adekola, G. &Falase, A.O (2006). Domestic violence and women participation in community
development activities. AfricanJournal of Education and Development, 3(1) 85-93.



Adichie C.N. (2006). Purple hibiscus. Nigeria: Kachifo Limited.

Bloor, T. and Bloor M. (1995). The functional analysis of English: A Hallidayan approach.
London: Arnold.

De Vries, H. (2012). Religion and violence: Philosophical perspectives from Kent to Derrida.
Baltimore. MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Eggins, S. (2004). Anintroduction to systemic functional linguistics. London: Continuum
International Publishing Group.

Halliday, M.A.K (1978). An introduction to functional grammar. London: Edward Arnold

Halliday, M.A.K and Matthiessen, C.M.I.M (2004). An introduction to functional grammar (3rd

ed.) Great Britain: Contriuum.

Nwankwo, O. (2003). Manual on domestic violence.Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishing Co.
Ltd.

Peace, E and Payermer, M. (1993). Education groups for men who batter: The Duluth model.
New York: Springer.

Scott, J and Marshall, G. (2009). An Oxford dictionary of sociology. New York: Oxford Press.

Appendix

Excerpt 1: Things Fall Apart (Page 23-24)

“Where is Ojugo?” (verbiage) he (sayer) asked (verbal) his second wife (receiver); who came
out of her hut (cir:loc) to draw water from a gigantic pot in the shede of a small tree in the
middle of the comp (location). She has gone to plate her hair” (verbiage). Okonkwo (Actor) bit
(Material) his lips (goal) as anger welled up within him (cir: manner). “Where are her children?
Did she take them (verbiage) he (sayer) asked (verba) with unusual coolness and restraint
(manner). “They are here (verbiage) answered (verbal) his first wife Nwoye’s wife (sayer).
Okonkwo (actor) bent (material) and looked into her hut (cir: location). Ojiugo’s children
(actors) where eating (material) with the children of his first wife (cir: accompaniment). “Did
she ask you to feed them before she went? (verbage). Yes, led Nwoye’s mother, trying to
minimize Ojiugo’s thoughtlessness (verbiage). Okonkwo (senser) knew( material) she was not
speaking the truth (phenomenon). He (actor) walked (material) back to his obi (god)
(cir:location) to await Ojiugo’s return. And when she returned (cir: time) he (actor)
beat(material) her (goal) very heavily (manner). In his anger(manner) he (senser) had
forgetten (mental) that it was the week of peace. His first two wives(Actors) ran(material) out
(location) in great alarm pleading (manner) with him that it was the sacred week. But Okonkwo



(carrier) was not (relation) the men to stop beating somebody half way though nor even for fear
of a goodess (attribute). Okonkwo’s neighbours (senser) heard(mental)his wife
crying(phenomenon). And sent (mater) their voices (goal) over the compound walls (location)
to as why it was the matter. Some of them (actor) came (material ineffect) over to see things for
themselves (location). It (carrier) was unheard of (relational) to beat somebody during the
sacred week (cir: time). Before it was double(cir: time) Ezeani (Actor) who was the priest of
the earth goddess Ezeani (Actor) called (material) on Okonkwo (goal) in his obi (location).
Okonkwo (Actor) bought (material) kola nut (goal) and placed (material) it before the priest
(location). Take away your kola nut. I (actor) shall not eat (material) in the house of a man
(location) who has no respect for our gods and ancestors. You (carrier) have committed a great
evil (phenomenon). He (actor) brought (material)down his staff heavily (manner) on the floor
(location).

Excerpt 2: Purple Hibiscus(200-201)

“Climb into the tub” (verbiage) Papa (Sayer) said (verbal). I (Actor) stepped (material) into
the tub (cir-location). 1(Actor) did not know (mental) what he was going to do to
me..(phenomenon). It (carrier) was (relation) easier when I (senser) saw (metal) a stick
(phenomenon) because I could rub my palm together and tighten the muscles of my calves in
preparation. He (sayer) had never asked (verbal) me (receiver) to stand inside a tub
(cir:location). Then I (senser) noticed (mental) the kettle on the floor (cir:location) close to
Papa’s feet (cir:location). Papa (actor) picked (material effective) it (goal) up (cir:location).
You knew your grandfather was coming to Nsukka (Verbiage) did you (receiver) not” he (sayer)
asked(verbiage)in igbo (cir:manner). Did you pick up the phone and inform me of this
(verbiage). “You knew you would be sleeping in the same house as a heathen?”(verbiage). “So
you saw the sin clearly and you walked right into it” (verbiage). I (behavior) nodded “yes papa
(behavior). “Kambili, you are precious (verbiage). His voice (behaver) quavered (behavior)
now like someone speaking at a funeral (cir:manner) choked with emotion (manner). “You
should strive for perfection. You (receiver) should not see sin and walk right into” (verbiage).
He (actor) lowered (material) the kettle (goal) into the hub (location)/titled (material) towards
my feet (location). He (actor) poured (material effective) the hot water(goal) on my feet
(location, slowly (manner). He (actor) was crying (material ineffective) now (cir:time) tears
streaming down his face (cir:location) I (senser) saw (mental) the moist stream before I saw the
water (phenomenon). I (senser) watched (mental) the water leave the kettle; flowing almost in
slow motion in an arc (manner) to my feet (location). The pain of contact (carrier) was
(relation) so pure so scalding (attribute). I (senser) felt (mental) nothing for a second
(phenomenon). And then (cir:time) I (behave) screamed (behavior). That is what you do to
yourself when you walk into sin. You burn your feet” (verbiage) he (sayer) said (verbal)




