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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Girl with the Louding Voice, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Education, Empowerment, and Self-Worth
Gender Inequality and Solidarity
Wealth, Poverty, and Choice
Survival
Summary
Analysis
The narrator’s father summons her to the parlor. She is intimidated by him, because he often looks at her as though he wants to hit her. The narrator looks at her father’s emotionless face and fears he is about to tell her bad news. The last time he looked this way, it was to tell her she had to stop going to school, though at that time she was already the oldest student in her class. She remembers the day she stopped going to school as being the worst day of her life, along with the day her mama died.
The narrator’s fear of her father suggests that he has a bad temper—possibly even a violent one. He’s unapproachable, and they don’t seem to have a close, equal relationship. The narrator’s gender—she is female—might have something to do with this. That the novel begins with the narrator describing her father rather than herself gives the impression that her father and his opinions are more important than the narrator and her own thoughts and desires. The narrator is also grieving her mother, which might be important to consider in terms of the narrator’s current mental state.
Themes
The parlor is small, but the narrator’s father, whom she calls Papa, asks her to move closer. He’s sitting on a couch covered in the urine stains of the youngest child, Kayus. There is a TV in the parlor, which Born-boy, the oldest child, found in the trash some years ago. The TV is used primarily for decoration, to impress guests like Mr. Bada. There is also a fan in the parlor, though it is missing multiple blades.
The dilapidated appearance and small size of the parlor suggests that the narrator’s family is struggling financially. They’re also class-conscious, using the old TV to make them seem wealthier than they really are.
Themes
Adunni (the narrator) notes the scent of alcohol on Papa’s breath. Papa tells Adunni that the family can no longer pay rent and must leave their home. Papa tells Adunni that Morufu, the old, poor taxi driver with two wives and four children, has offered to pay the family’s rent, which he will consider Adunni’s “owo-ori.” This news shocks Adunni, who is only 14 and whose only desire is to go to school. Papa informs Adunni that she will marry Morufu next week.
That Adunni notices the scent of alcohol on Papa’s breath implies that he has a drinking problem. The fact that Morufu, who is considered poor, has enough money to pay Adunni’s family’s rent suggests that they are even worse off than him, which underscores the direness of the family’s financial situation. The ease with which Papa reveals to his teenage daughter that he will marry her off to Morufu suggests that the practice of young girls marrying much older men is common or at least accepted in their community. It also suggests that gender inequality is a deeply rooted problem in this society—a man can force his daughter to marry, and she has no power to resist.
Themes
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