The Girl with the Louding Voice Themes

Before the events of The Girl with the Louding Voice, when Adunni’s mother, Mama, is still alive, she teaches Adunni that “your schooling is your voice.” As a result, Adunni spends the novel searching for a “louding voice”—that is, empowerment and self-worth—through education. Adunni’s quest for knowledge is challenged, though, as she’s forced to marry an abusive man and later tricked into indentured servitude. But despite Adunni’s dismal circumstances and the cruel people…

In the opening passage of The Girl with the Louding Voice, the teenager narrator, Adunni, learns that her father is forcing her to marry a much older man, Morufu, in exchange for food and rent money. Throughout the novel, it becomes clear that child marriage and other forms of gendered oppression—such as sexual objectification, violence, and lack of access to education—are pervasive problems for Nigerian women and girls, particularly those like Adunni who…

Though Adunni is only 14 years old, she endures a great deal of trauma before and during the events of the novel. For instance, Mama dies when she’s very young, Papa forces her to marry a much older man who rapes her, and she’s tricked into becoming an indentured servant for a rich businesswoman who abuses her. Despite all this, Adunni perseveres, and she and other characters she meets develop a variety of coping mechanisms…