Big Mouth & Ugly Girl is a novel about adolescents coming of age and discovering new truths of their world. Among these revelations is an understanding of the fallibility of the adults they previously considered somehow different and more knowledgeable than themselves. Big Mouth & Ugly Girl presents adults in much the same way as it presents children: as confused slaves to gossip and reputation who struggle with issues much larger than themselves.

The issues adults fumble through in this text include the possibilities of domestic terrorism (Mr. Parrish) and lawsuits upward of $50 million (the Donaghys and the accused: Mr. Parrish, Reverend Brewer, and the school district). Ill-equipped to deal with these gargantuan issues, adults also fall victim to much smaller problems, such as marital strife, depression, and loneliness, issues that afflict both Matt’s and Ursula’s parents and directly impact the children.

Oates presents adults as largely stumbling through life and therefore lacking much capability in guiding the text’s adolescent protagonists. As she writes, “Mr. Parrish was smiling in that strained hopeful way adults have when they want you to think something they aren’t a hundred percent certain of themselves. So if you go away thinking it, they can think it, too.