The Girl with the Louding Voice

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Mapping Adunni’s Coming of Age and Liberation”

In this activity, students will use character analysis and plot mapping to evaluate whether liberation is a separate process or a necessary component of coming of age.

While exploring Adunni’s coming of age story, Daré imagines a path toward liberation for Nigerian women. In this activity, you will use plot and character analysis to create a visual representation of both Adunni’s coming of age and her journey toward liberation to draw a conclusion as to whether liberation is a component of the coming-of-age process. Your conclusion should feature prominently in your final product and include working definitions of both coming of age and liberation. Your visual representation may take the form of an infographic, map, poster, or slideshow.

Teaching Suggestion: Students may benefit from a pre-discussion that defines and challenges definitions of both liberation and coming of age. Consider posing the following questions: Can people experience coming of age more than once? For example, could someone in their forties or fifties have second or third coming-of-age experiences? Does this question remind you of anyone in the novel? Because the prompt is abstract, consider reminding students of familiar graphic frameworks—such as timelines, land maps, plot diagrams, or Bobbie Harro’s Socialization and Liberation graphics—and then having students practice plotting Adunni’s story in those forms in groups or as a class to make the task more concrete. To showcase student work, students might formally present or create a physical or digital display. This activity may also work as preparation for a formal class discussion or debate.

Differentiation Suggestion: For students with organizational or executive functioning differences, graphic organizers or step guides may be beneficial. For multilingual learners, pre-selected and/or pre-highlighted passages related to their character may help with time management and ease transition from language comprehension to character analysis. To include more learning styles and cultures, consider allowing options for group work, visual or performance art forms such as video or storyboarding, or oral response forms. To provide opportunities for reflection, consider having students write statements that explain how they arrived at their conclusion on the topic.

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Though deceased, Adunni’s mother plays a pivotal role in her personal development.

• What impact has Adunni’s mother had on her sense of self, and how does Adunni honor that impact after her death? (topic sentence)
• Identify 2-3 important truths Adunni’s mother taught before she passed away, and explain how Adunni honors these truths despite increasingly difficult circumstances.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, explain the lasting importance of positive relationships between mothers and daughters and/or discuss its relevance alongside the theme of The Bond Between Parents and Children.

2. Symbolism and motifs such as bathing, houses, education, and promises drive both plot and message. Choose only one for the purpose of this essay.

• How does this symbol or motif develop throughout the novel, and what is its significance? (topic sentence)
• Identify where this symbol or motif appears, relate the meaning Adunni attaches to it throughout the story, and explain how it connects to Adunni’s journey.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, explain what message this symbol or motif shows about one of the text’s larger themes: How Individuals Find the Strength to Overcome Unimaginable Trauma, The Bond Between Parents and Children, or The Importance and Meaning of Nigeria, Both Inside and Outside the Country.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by textual details, and a conclusion.

1. Throughout the novel, examples of feminine strength contrast with examples of masculine weakness, and yet the women find themselves at the bottom of the power dynamics in most of their relationships with men. Why might this be? What might these contrasts suggest about gender relationships, both in Nigeria and globally, and the harms of power imbalances on all genders? How might the relationships showing support for and solidarity with women provide a clue as to how to resist gendered oppression?

2. Formal education, individual empowerment, and liberation are connected throughout the story. Why does Adunni pursue education despite her challenging circumstances? In what ways does the pursuit of education and knowledge allow Adunni to carry on in the face of trauma? In what ways is her informal education through her life experiences just as important for her survival, and what might the novel suggest about the role and limits of education in promoting female liberation?

Multiple Choice and Long Answer Questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. What literary device does Daré use most obviously to characterize Adunni in the opening scene?

A) Character voice

B) Irony

C) Foreshadowing

D) Simile and metaphor

2. Which quote from Chapter 4 best captures how Adunni’s mother feels about Adunni’s education?

A) “Adunni, because I didn’t go to school, I didn’t marry my love.”

B) “You are supposed to have born at least one or two childrens by this time.”

C) “Your schooling is your voice, child.”

D) “Only stubborn head it will give you.”

3. Which relationship does Khadija stand in for when Adunni moves into Morufu’s house?

A) Khadija is most like her worst enemy.

B) Khadija is most like her mother.

C) Khadija is most like her best friend, Enitan.

D) Khadija is most like her brother, Kayus.

4. Which of the following reasons led Khadija to conceive a child with Bamidele?

A) Bamidele is kinder than Morufu.

B) Bamidele is unmarried and waiting for her to divorce Morufu.

C) Morufu cannot produce sons like Bamidele.

D) Khadija is taking revenge on Morufu by conceiving a child with another.

5. What is the difference between Adunni’s father and Kayus?

A) Kayus is a child, so comparison is impossible.

B) Kayus wants to catch Adunni and refuses to give up.

C) Kayus will grow up to be hard toward his daughters just like his father.

D) Kayus has the courage to question social conventions.

6. What is ironic about the statues of the kings Adunni must pass to flee the village?

A) The kings represent justice, but the elders will punish Adunni.

B) The kings represent order, but Adunni’s life is in chaos.

C) The kinds represent wisdom, but Adunni has been naïve.

D) The kings are male, making it clear for whom the world is intended.

7. Which of the following vices does Kofi tell Adunni to look out for in Big Daddy?

A) His trafficking of people and drugs

B) His gambling

C) His womanizing

D) His drinking

8. Why does Adunni not take Kofi’s admonishment of their employers’ wasteful spending and underhand business practices as a sign of his rectitude?

A) He is complaining about things everyone in Lagos does.

B) He could spend his own salary on something better than a house in Ghana.

C) He profits from her unpaid labor.

D) He has no problem taking their questionable earnings as salary.

9. Why do Rebecca’s forgotten waist beads make Adunni suspicious?

A) The waist beads are smudged with a dark red stain.

B) Girls from Adun wear them from childhood and do not remove them.

C) She finds the beads in Big Daddy’s shift pocket while doing the wash.

D) Abu changes the subject when she asks about why Rebecca left them.

10. Why does Adunni not tell Tia the truth about her past with Morufu and Khadija despite growing close with her?

A) She is not ready to speak the truth aloud because the trauma is so fresh.

B) She fears Tia will refuse to sponsor her application if she finds out.

C) She fears Tia will judge her for leaving her lawful husband.

D) She is afraid Tia will report her to the authorities for breaking the law.

11. What do Tia’s photos of her and Ken show Adunni?

A) They help Adunni understand the difficulties of being without children.

B) They reveal the falsity of Adunni’s and Big Madam’s marriages.

C) They show Adunni what a completely successful marriage looks like.

D) They make Adunni jealous of Tia’s luxurious and carefree life.

12. What might the flogging “bath” Tia endures symbolize?

A) It represents the myriad ways women suffer for being women.

B) It represents the pains of childbirth and conception.

C) It represents an irreversible part of Yoruba culture.

D) It represents the trials of getting pregnant.

13. In what way is Tia’s “bath” a formative experience?

A) She realizes her marriage has been a lie and feels sorry for Big Madam.

B) She blames Adunni for not intervening in the ritual.

C) She realizes she never wanted to have children in the first place.

D) She resolves to help Adunni escape because the suffering of Adunni’s situation is clearer.

14. What might the fate of Rebecca’s letter represent?

A) It represents Big Daddy’s guilt beyond any doubt.

B) It represents the power imbalances that impede justice.

C) It represents the questions people choose to ignore to move on in life.

D) It represents both hope for truth and justice for Rebecca’s killer.

15. Why does Adunni leave the library door open when she leaves Big Madam’s home for good?

A) She wants to remember where she found herself.

B) She wants the spirits of the books that helped her to follow.

C) She sends a message to Big Madam that the door to changing her life is open.

D) She engages in a final act of civil disobedience to show her defiance.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating textual details to support your response.

1. What does Adunni’s revelation that English is just a language like Yoruba or Hausa suggest about her desired “louding voice”?

2. How does Adunni serve as inspiration for others she meets?