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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
It’s raining hard as Khadija shows Adunni around the kitchen area. Khadija and Labake each have their own stove, and Khadija offers to let Adunni use hers. Adunni smells the scent of old urine and asks about the bathroom. Khadija gestures toward the bathroom, which everyone is free to use—so long as Morufu is first, which is the rule for everything. Khadija reiterates that Morufu “is king in this house.”
Khadija’s acceptance of Morufu’s self-proclaimed status as “king” of the house shows that her powerless position gives her no other option but to submit to Morufu’s order if she wants to keep herself fed and with a roof over her head. Like Adunni, Khadija must observe Morufu’s rules while living in under his roof.
Themes
Khadija and Adunni return to the main interior of the house and Khadija shows Adunni to Morufu’s room at the end of a hallway. She points out her room, Labake’s room, and the room the children share along the way. When Adunni is not required to be with Morufu, Khadija explains, Adunni will share Khadija’s room. Adunni expresses her fears about sleeping with Morufu to Khadija, who comforts Adunni and suggests that she close her eyes and picture something she likes. Adunni begins to cry and says all she wants is Mama.
When Khadija tells Adunni to close her eyes and think positive thoughts while Morufu forces himself on her, she is likely passing along a technique that she uses. It’s similar to the coping mechanism Adunni used during her wedding earlier in the day: distancing herself from her body in an effort to endure a traumatic experience. Adunni cries for Mama here, signifying that Mama was her protector when she was alive. It also underscores that Adunni is still a child, making the sexual encounter she will soon experience all the more disturbing.
Themes
Morufu calls Adunni into bedroom, which contains a kerosene map and a bare mattress laid on the floor. Morufu, shirtless, his chest covered in gray hairs, instructs Adunni to join him on the bed. As she sits down, she spots on the floor a bottle bearing the label “Fire-Cracker Bitters. Wake Up Sleeping Manhood” and wonders what “sleeping manhood” might mean. Morufu explains that the elixir in the bottle is like “petrol is for car.”
The fact that Morufu has gray hairs on his chest and must use some kind of medicine to arouse himself underscores the age gap between him and Adunni, further highlighting the uneven power dynamic between them. Adunni’s confusion about the meaning of “sleeping manhood” shows how little she understands about adult subjects like sex.
Themes
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Morufu orders Adunni to lie down, but she refuses, feeling that she will be sick. He orders her again and she relents. A flash of light enters the room, and Adunni wonders if it might be Mama’s spirit protecting her. She tries to keep the light in her line of sight, but it fades away as quickly as it appeared. Morufu rapes Adunni. Adunni realizes she has no power in the face of Morufu “behaving as if a devil is inside of him.” Morufu finishes and proclaims that Adunni is “now complete woman.” He tells her they will do this until she becomes pregnant and gives birth to a boy. He puts on his pants and leaves a crying Adunni alone in the dark room.
Mama’s spiritual protection, represented through the flash of lightning, is no match against Morufu’s physical power or the patriarchal system that emboldens him. Morufu’s declaration that Adunni is “now complete woman” after being raped by him implies that she is somehow incomplete or unimportant if she is not giving pleasure to a man.
Themes
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