Colour Motif in Adichie's 'Purple Hibiscus' and 'Half of a Yellow Sun' - Jimson, Vincent

From time immemorial, colours have been used for symbolic meanings. They have been used to symbolize wealth, status, lineage, age, social group or other concepts like human states, mood and emotions; literature has used colours in these manners too. In literature, words are living entities and are multilayered and multifunctional. Words wear amplified garments in denotative, but especially connotative or figurative meanings, to perform functions beyond their ordinary enclave; this is the only way they can achieve the verstility that the demands of spurious human existence has placed on them. The symbolism in colour help words send out special and specific meanings. One of the finest African Literateuses, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, is known to be a lover of colour motifs in her works. Not only do colours appear on her titles, like the two selected in this thesis, they immensely enable her espouse the symbolic meanings of her imagination to her readers, which is why this project is (under)taken to peep into literary use of colour symbolism in general, and her own personal imaginative use of same, in particular. What are her symbolisms for Purple and Yellow, for instance? Find out!