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Chapter 32
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
Fact: over 50 million people in Nigeria use the internet. It’s the evening of Adunni’s first lesson with Ms. Tia, and the two of them sit beneath a palm tree as the sun begins to set. Ms. Tia gives Adunni an exercise book and explains that begin their lessons with an intermediate course she found on the BBC website. Some days she’ll help Adunni, and other days, Adunni can listen to free English instruction courses on the internet on her phone. Adunni doesn’t know what Ms. Tia means by “internet,” though she recognizes the word from The Book of Nigerian Facts. Ms. Tia describes the internet as something that connects people and information across the world—in fact, Ms. Tia even met her husband online, on Facebook.
Given the rules and social norms that houses symbolize in the novel, it’s important to note that Adunni’s first lesson with Ms. Tia occurs outside, beneath a palm tree. This might suggest that the lessons will be freeing and honest in a way that Adunni’s experiences indoors are not. Adunni’s exposure to The Book of Nigerian Facts gives her a context with which to examine the world around her, as in this situation, where she recognizes the word “internet” from her reading. Access to books and technology can greatly expand a person’s world, as is the case for Ms. Tia, who met her husband halfway across the world through social media.
Themes
Ms. Tia picks up her phone to illustrate how to connect with people online. She clicks on a picture of a white woman who she says is her old roommate, Katie, who is British. Adunni says that Katie stole Nigeria’s freedom and that Nigerians took it back on October 1st, 1960. Ms. Tia corrects her, reasoning that the British government is responsible for this, not individual British people.
Adunni’s comment about Katie is in reference to the Nigerian fact that preceded Chapter 27. Adunni’s observation situates Katie as a stand-in for the actions of the British government. This speaks to larger issues of the lasting effects of colonization, the concept of whiteness, and the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed, with Katie//Great Britain being the oppressor and Adunni/Nigeria being the oppressed. Adunni’s observation shows that she is able to connect things she learns in books to the real world in order to make sense of history and society.
Themes
Adunni expresses her disbelief that people who look like Ms. Tia can live “in the Abroad,” because she only sees people who look like Katie on foreign TV. Ms. Tia agrees that there aren’t enough Black people in positions of power, which confuses Adunni, who has never heard of people being referred to as “black” or “white.”
Living in a European country gives Ms. Tia knowledge about race that Adunni, with her comparatively sheltered life, does not have access to.
Themes
Adunni returns the conversation to Facebook and asks Ms. Tia if she can find Bamidele on Facebook. Bamidele is a common name, so Ms. Tia asks for his surname. Adunni says “I didn’t sure,” which Ms. Tia corrects with “I am not sure.” Then they begin their first English lesson, which will be on tenses.
Learning English tenses will be key to Adunni writing a successful, grammatically correct essay for the scholarship education, which will give her a better chance to win the award and secure her education and freedom.
Themes
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