Random House: PURPLE HIBISCUS is your first novel. What inspired you to write this book?
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: It came about organically and slowly; it was sparked by a mélange of things: my homesickness after first arriving in America to attend college (and the way I stubbornly romanticized my memories so that everything became fragrant—rain, sand, [...]
Entries from March 2007
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on writing
Using Archetypes to Develop Complex Characters
Author and Jungian analyst Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D. explains the idea of archetype as a “predisposition that contributes to our personality, helping define our strengths, difficulties, and meaning.”
She says the common forms “are based on the gods and goddesses in Greek mythology. People are complex, there is a pantheon of these archetypes in each of [...]
