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Chapter 34
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: child marriage is still prevalent in northern Nigeria, though the country banned the practice in 2003. Adunni doesn’t sleep well after her frightening encounter with Big Daddy. She stays awake in bed reading Mama’s Bible, practicing her English, or holding Rebecca’s waist beads. She listens closely for Big Daddy, though he hasn’t bothered her lately. Adunni decides that she will tell Ms. Tia about the incident.
Nigeria’s Child Rights Act, passed in 2003, has a section that prohibits child marriage, but there are loopholes in the Nigerian Constitution that allow the practice to continue. Adunni’s method of coping with the frightening encounter with Big Daddy positions faith as a way to combat fear and trauma. Rebecca’s waist beads also become instrumental in Adunni’s quest to find strength. The waist beads are a symbolic stand-in for Rebecca, and so this scene underscores Adunni’s impulse to seek comfort and support in other women and girls. This notion is further illustrated in Adunni’s decision to tell Ms. Tia about the incident with Big Daddy.
Themes
Adunni and Ms. Tia are outside behind the kitchen when Adunni mentions the incident with Big Daddy. Adunni expresses her fear that Big Daddy “wants to rough [her].” Ms. Tia tells Adunni she should have a lock on her door. She offers to tell Big Madam about the incident with Big Daddy, but Adunni is afraid that Big Madam will beat her if she hears about it. Ms. Tia agrees not to tell Big Madam for the time being. She also expresses regret that Big Madam will be back in two days, making it harder for them to meet up for lessons. They’ll have to come up with a new excuse to meet. Ms. Tia thinks that maybe her husband, Ken, whom Big Madam respects, can ask Adunni to accompany them to the market a few times a week.
Ms. Tia and Adunni continue to meet outside, which places their lessons in an environment free from the constraining social norms in Big Madam’s house. Ms. Tia’s fear that Big Madam (who upholds these norms) will put their lessons to an end reinforces this theory: with Big Madam back in town, Adunni will have no choice but to submit to Big Madam’s rules. Ms. Tia’s theory that Big Madam might listen to Ken (presumably because he is a rich man) underscores Big Madam’s complicity in upholding unjust norms related to gender and class.
Themes
In the middle of today’s lesson, Ms. Tia stops writing and sits down, looking weak and shaken. She tells Adunni that she is tired and hopes that she might be pregnant, though not seriously, because it’s too soon for that. She tells Adunni that Ken’s mother was just at their house, something she does once a month to pester Ms. Tia about grandchildren. This is stressful, especially since she and Ken have only recently agreed to have children. Ms. Tia and Adunni finish the lesson, and Ms. Tia says that she will talk to Ken about going to the market.
Ken’s mother’s monthly check-ins show that even Ms. Tia, whose social position affords her the option to opt out of having children, can’t help but escape the gender norms that govern the larger culture. These visits also position Ken’s mother as perpetuating gender inequality, as women are the ones who are pressured to have children.
Themes
