Second-Class Citizen By Buchi Emecheta (Theme/Thematic Preoccupation)

 SECOND-CLASS CITIZEN BY BUCHI EMECHETA

THEMES (THEMATIC PREOCCUPATION)

 

Racial Discrimination and Identify Crisis

 

Second-Class Citizen depicts ordinary Africans who are naturally blacks, and explores, how the fact of their race inhibits them from enjoying a glorious stay in a foreign land. The title of the novel “Second Class Citizen refers to a substandard, inferior, and black citizen in the novel, the fact that there are second-class citizens and first-class citizens makes racism and identity crisis evident in the novel. The former is associated with the British people, who stand the chance of becoming a partaker of everything the society offers, while the latter which is black (Africans to be precise) have their choices limited.  They are not allowed to live with their white counterparts, which is a white dominant community.  The blacks are forced to live in slums, while menial jobs are meant for them.

 

  For example, Adah and her family make the theme of racial discrimination prominent in the novel as an issue that she tries to avoid all to no avail.  Adah’s first encounter with race relations occurs when they are still at Ashdown Street, when she is served a notice to quit the house.  It reads “No meandering A solicitor representing their landlord, would like them to quit and give up all claims to the tenancy of their one room.  This is not because she had a problem with her fellow tenants or the landlady, as she has done everything to avoid any clash or confrontation with them.  Some of the things working against her and the family include: They are blacks. Nigerian to be precise. 

 

Adah has refused to send her children to nursery like everyone else in England.  Also, they are Ibos, the hated people because they believe in their own ideologies.  The landlady is aware that Adah is expecting a third child and the fact that Vicky has cheated death “Adah is expecting a third child and the fact that Vicky has cheated death “Adah and her husband must go” the landlady affirms.  Their search for a new accommodation yields no result.  Nearly all the vacant spaces they come across bear an inscription.  “Sorry, No colored” no them.

 

          Adah’s house hunting is made more difficult because of racism and identity crisis, for she is black, with two children, and pregnant with another. Race relation has taught her a lesson that her color is something she should be ashamed of.  She was never aware of this at home in Nigeria, even when in the midst of whites.  As racism is beginning to have a serious psychological effect on her, she vows never to measure up with the white folks-but to live a low lifestyle, and also stop looking for accommodation in a clean, desirable neighborhood.  She is now learning to suspect anything beautiful and pure because those things are for the white, not the blacks.

 

Also, the effect of racial discrimination has made Adah a liar and deceiver such that she had to change her Nigerian-born accent so as to sound like a white lady in order to secure accommodation. Both Adah and Francis still have to visit the white landlady to conceal their black colors and identify without result.  It is also the effect of racism that makes Francis burns the manuscript of Adah’s first novel.  The Bride Price because he feels that Adah is black, and the writing career is meant for the white alone.

 

 

2.  Theme of Love and Marriage

 The marriage between Adah and Francis in the prose narrative is dangerously consummated based on what each partner starts to benefit. While Adah is burning with the desire to work hard and contribute financially to her immediate family and her husband, Francis is busy working for a sly way to parasitically benefit from Adah. According to Adah. she is not happy with Ma for marrying again and she sees it as a betrayal of Pa because she is now compelled to make a financial contribution to her family by saving her from the humiliating position, she found herself.

 

 Before long, Adah has been dreaming of marrying early, a rich man who would allow Ma and Boy to come and stay with her, that would solve a lot of problems, but the ones that keep coming her way are quite elderly and she can’t consent to stay with a husband when she will have to treat as a master and refer to as ‘Sir’.  even behind her back.  This is because the people in Ibuza Community where Adah hails from see marriage as a master-servant union where the woman is subjected to serve the man, gives birth to countless children, and cares for them with little or no assistance from the so-called father rather than being or seen as a partner.  Education for a girl-child is off the record because they feel that education makes a woman arrogant and irresponsible.  This is the reason why Adah is not registered in any school at a tender age, even when Boy is already in school.

 

          However, Adah decides to settle down with Francis, a young man who is still reading to be an accountant at a very tender age.  Francis is poor and just can’t afford to pay five hundred pounds bride price, Ma and other members of the family are asking for as an expensive bride who is college-trained, even though none of them had contributed to her education.   And they refuse to attend Adah’s wedding on account of this.

 

Basically, one cannot say precisely that the union between Adah and Francis is consummated without love as a base, but Francis’s actions and inaction can serve as the testament that such love or marriage is parasitic rather than being symbiotic. It is clear that Adah’s hard work, passion for the family, and her fat salary are the only fuel that oil their love and marriage, as Francis refuses to takes up any job to contribute his quota to the uplift of the family.  Francis does nothing to promote the well-being of the family and has no mind of his own. He writes back home often to her parents over issues that can be resolved by both of them.  Such a situation occurs when he discovers that Adah has  obtained a family-planning method without his consent.

 

          To Francis, a woman in a marriage is a second–class human, to sleep with any time, every day, father numerous children and abandon them and if she refuses, beat her to submission.  They are meant to wash clothes and have the man’s meals ready at any nighttime, and there is no need to have an intelligent conversation with her since she is senseless and has no idea what to offer.  Her dream of becoming a writer is punctured by Francis who feels that his family won’t be happy if his wife is permitted to write a book.

 

 The only thing that she gets for being the breadwinner of her family is maltreatment, beating, assault, insult, abandonment and rejection.  Francis refuses to care about his children, for he also rejects them at the last minutes in court and also wishes them bad when he says “I don’t mind their being sent for adaption”(191)  Therefore, the union between Adah and Francis is loveless according to Adah because Francis refuses to see things in her point of view to care and respect the family.  Adah vows to do everything to bring up her five children since Francis has refused to contribute to their maintenance before they finally part ways.  “The children are mine, and that is enough.  I shall never let them down as long as I live” (191) Adah gives a note of assurance.

 

 

1. FEMINISTIC PROTEST AND FEMALE SUBJUGATION

 

 Feminism is the belief and aim that women should have the same right and opportunities as men, and the struggle to achieve this aim.  Adah as a feminist character is basically created to alter the circumstance surrounding her childhood and that of the foreign land (London) she finds herself.  For instance, female children are less relevant and of low value in Ibuza, therefore, they are not given equal opportunities ascribed to the male children.  Adah was given birth when everyone including her parents was expecting and predicting a boy.  So she is seen as a disappointment to her parents and her tribe and that is why no one bothers to record her date of birth.

 

 However, Adah who is not moved by any form of gender bias, inequality, or what her society thinks about her gender braces the odd to challenge the status quo.  At first, she forces herself to school when she is already eight years old since her parents have refused to register her in a school based on their notion about her gender.  Her parents, Pa and Ma sincerely believe that education for the girl-child makes her irresponsible and pompous.  At this time, Boy, Adah’s brother is already a student of Ladi-Lak institute, the most expensive school in Lagos.  She envies Boy initially which later grows to frustration and sadness.

 

She derives joy in disobeying her parents just to draw their attention to her plight of not being registered in a school with Boy, until her parents become less considerate a bit and have her registered in a Methodist school around the corner which is very cheap. This is made possible through ceaseless feminist protest, especially when Ma is punished by police for child neglect.

 

As a feminist, Adah extends her silent and harmless protest to her marriage to a man who is brainwashed by African traditional belief that has relegated the women to the background. Francis's notion about women is narrow and drab.  He sees women as sub-humans, to be explored, exploited, used, and abandoned to wallow in misery.  It is true that Adah decides to be the breadwinner of her family at the inception of their union, the role that is meant for the male folks.  She sustains her family, (husband and four children), pays all the bills as well.  This is because she learns very early to be responsible for herself, even when nobody is interested in her for her own sakes, only in the money she is fetching for the family.

 

 Her sojourn to a foreign land and unfortunate marriage to Francis seems like misery slavery and bondage in totality.  Her determination, desire, and freedom from male-dominated society which has subjugated the womenfolk and treats them as merchandise make her a true feminist.  Also, her ability to detach herself from the shackles of Francis maltreatment is another attribute that warrants attention.

 

 

4  STRUGGLE AND HARDSHIP

 

           Struggle, they say, is part of human development and it often occurs which may later give way for the life of triumph Contrarily, Adah’s entire life  is a book of struggle from childhood to adolescence and eventual adulthood, where all her suffering and struggles give birth to divorce.  It is apparent that Adah sets forth at dawn at a very tender age to face her life’s struggle squarely, to be her own woman.  At eight, she is still in the house, lazy around, for she is not considered by her parents to be in school because their beliefs don’t permit a girl’s education.  Boys are only suitable and allowed to acquire education and Boy, her only brother is duly registered early enough in an expensive school. Adah struggles and mischievously drags herself to school one morning before Ma suddenly realizes that she must be in school.  This happens when Ma is punished for neglecting Adah and she receives some strokes of canes from Pa for Ma’s benefit.

 

 Adah continues in her struggle to actualize all her dreams including that of a good education, but not without setbacks. Just a few months after she starts school. Pa goes to the hospital but is corpse is brought home, for burial.  Ma is inherited by Pa’s brother and Boy is set out to live with Pa’s cousins and a hundred pounds would be spent on Boy’s education, his bright future is therefore secured. Adah’s dream of education would have been deferred but somebody points out that the longer she stays at school, the bigger the bride price, her future husband pays for her and after all, she is too young for marriage.  The only alternative for Adah is to work in a man’s house who treats her as a servant-cum slave.  She starts her work in the morning as earlier as four-thirty to fetch water and clean the house, So she is happy for being given the opportunity of survival, she does not waste time thinking about its rights or wrongs, she just has to survive and finish school.

 

 However, hardship and lack get a better part of Adah when she is about to write her entrance examination.  She decides to commit a horrible atrocity of lying by using the two shillings cousin Vincent gave her to buy meat from the market to pay for the entrance examination.  She consequently receives a hundred and three strokes of koboko from Mr. Vincent.  “You are the greatest mystery the good God has ever created (23) the headmaster compliments Adah for not only passed the entrance examination, but she also got a scholarship with a full board.

 

  Adah’s eventual marriage to Francis is not without trials and tribulations, financial distress and misfortune, suffering and troubles.  Her mother and other members of her family could not come to the wedding because Francis is too poor to pay the money they asked for as bride price because Adah is a “College trained bride.  Francis’s mother will need to sign with her thump as a witness since they could not also afford a ring. They have to go home and come back the next day before they could be joined as husband and wife the problem of lack of support from her husband who has refused to work to contribute to the family.

 

 Another mountain to climb is the problem of racism and housing when Adah and her family is eventually injected from their house as a result of racial discrimination without any offense.  The only offense they committed is because they are blacks, their endless search for an accommodation yields little or no effort until they settle for a slum owned by Mr.  Noble, a Nigeria.  Her trouble continues until her final separation from Francis who physically and emotionally violates her,

 

 

5.  HARD WORK AND DETERMINATION

 

          Buchi Emecheta’s Second-Class Citizen is a prose narrative that teaches the virtue of hard work. Self-motivation, sense of purpose, willpower, steadfastness, and firmness of purpose. All these are Adah’s notable special traits and attributes.  Adah’s story revolves around her determination to acquire an education that is an exclusive preserve for the men folks in African society.  She also nurses a dream of traveling to The United Kingdom and she is poised to make her marriage to Francis work (even when Francis does nothing to make the family proud) and raise her children in a Godforsaken a race-driven society like London.

In the beginning, Adah’s mind is awash with the thought of obtaining education which may serve as the surest passport to change her destiny which seems bleak and the course of her family-to takes care of Ma and Boy.  How will she achieve that when the society she finds herself in will never permit her? She, therefore, becomes poised with determination to challenge and change the status quo by urging her to go to school on her own without obtaining any registration.  Thanks to Mr. Cole who welcomes her warmly and hopes to see her again.  It takes the efforts of a policewoman also and others to convince Ma before Adah is registered to a cheap school.

 

  Unfortunately, Pa dies shortly, but this does not put paid to her dream of going to school.  She is soon bundled out to live and work as a servant cum slave to another man who uses her as a beast of burden all in a bit to finish her schooling.  Things become worse and complicated when she is to enroll in a common entrance examination.  Adah stealthily converts the two shilling cousins Vincent gave her to purchase meat from the market to pay instead. And she performs excellently well in the examination and gets herself a scholarship.  After her education, she embarks on job hunting interviews and form filling without any result.  She perseveres endlessly before she is selected to work as a librarian in the American Consulate library, Adah continues to work hard and assume the role of a breadwinner to her immediate family.

 

 Being a go-getter, Adah’s dream of going to the United Kingdom and becomes an elite, just like lawyer Nweze of Ibuza comes calling “I used to dream that one day I would go to the United Kingdom.  Why don’t we save and go, now that we shall be able to afford it?  We can take our children with us “(27) Adah advises Francis.  Their stay aboard doesn’t come easy without huge challenges, but Adah’s perseverance and resilient attitude keep the family going.  The problem of housing crops up at first, when the community refuses to accommodate the blacks in their neighborhood. It is as a result of her staying power, endurance, and dedication that makes her finds solace in the Nobles who take her in with her three children.  It is this wind of endurance that makes Adah remain with Francis until they parted ways.

 

 

6.  CLASH OF TRADITION WITH MODERNITY AND SUPERSTITION

 

 The role of tradition and modernity cannot be downplayed in this novel. This serves as the ultimate conflict that makes the two key characters, Adah and Francis to be at loggerhead with each other before they finally part ways.  Francis, his family, and Adah’s parents so much believe in tradition and superstition, for they want things to be done as laid down by their ancestors.

 

  Firstly, it is a common belief in Ibuza community that female children are less important than male ones, and that is why her date of birth is not recorded, and at the age of eight, she is deprived of education.  The reason is that education will make her irresponsible and arrogant.  She is only useful for housework and marriage when her bride price is paid.  Also, reincarnation plays a key role in the lives of the people.  There is a superstitious undertone in Adah’s pet name.  ‘Nnenna’ which means “father’s mother”.  When Pa’s mother was dying when Pa was just five, she promised to come back to compensate him for leaving him so young.  Adah is seen as Pa’s returning mother because he feels that Adah is the very picture of his mother.

 

Also, Francis has demonstrated in the novel that he’s a true African, born and brought up in African traditional way and no amount of exposure or modernity can cleanse his mentality.  He is a member of the modern religion, called Jehovah’s Witness, but it does not stop his beliefs in African tradition, not even his eventual trip to London could alter it.  He s much believes in the African Communal life that he goes to meet his parents to obtain information that could help him run his home. “Father does not approve of women going to the UK.  But you will pay for me, and look after yourself and within these years, I’ll be back”  (30) Francis advises Adah.  Francis also believes that a woman must shed tears when her husband is going on a trip- an act Francis describes as outright negligence and absence of love for him.  A night before his departure, a relative of theirs makes a special prayer to the River Oboshi, a goddess in Ibusa to guide Francis, keep him from the evil eyes of white girls, to make him pass his examination in good time, bless him with all the money in England.

 

 Mr. Noble also exhibits his traditional belief before the two women who neither refuse to vacate his house nor accept the increment in rent.  Mr. Noble boasts to them that his mother is the greatest witch in the whole of black Africa and he has reported them to his dead mother to kill them.  This manifests greatly when the two ladies eventually died before the son fled in terror.

 

However, Adah is untimely portrayed as one character who so much believed in modernity.  Though he respects her traditional African root, but not too dogmatic as the likes of Francis and others.  For instance, family planning is a new modern method of controlling childbirth.  And the facts that Adah obtains and subscribes to it ruin their marriage.  Before then, Adah is reasonable enough to point out that “Superstition played a big role in the lives of those people,; if you slept with your wife when she was nursing a child, the child would die, so husbands abstained from their nursing wives for a period of three years.  Many men were polygamists for this reason.  They would build a separate hut for the nursing wives”, (17).  It is this clash of tradition with modernity that tears.  Adah and Francis apart, because Francis refuses to accept modernity and act like someone in a foreign land  “Leprosy was a disease with which the godless of the biggest river in Ibusa cursed anyone who dared to flaunt one of the town’s tradition”  (17).

 

CHARACTERIZATION

 

1.     ADAH OFILI:

 

          Adah is the daughter of both Pa and Ma, Boy’s sister and Francis Obi’s daring wife.  As the heroine of the novel, she is given birth in a wrong era where female children are treated as subhuman who is of no value.  Her upbringing is surrounded by a struggle for survival, not only of herself but also her dreams, while growing into a woman, moving from a high-class position in her native Nigeria to a very poor class in a predominantly white society.  She struggles with motherhood and with being a wife and supporting her entire family along with being her own independent person.  Part of her struggle also deals with the issues of marriage.

 

           Adah is a dreamer and self-motivator.  Her dream of going to the United Kingdom begins when she was just eight years.  This dream of hers  is further oiled by a lawyer Nweze, the first lawyer in Ibuza who serves as her role model.  Initially, she wants to go to school especially, now that her brother is already in school and she sneaks away from her mother one day and runs to school unregistered.  Adah’s dream to go to the United Kingdom to study and for her to achieve greatness over there does not come through without setbacks. Firstly, she is not allowed to go to school because she is a girl and the family does not want to spend the money on her to go and she gets her mother into trouble to actualize this dream.

 

 She is patient and hardworking.  Adah is a strong believer in hard work and consistency.  It is this attribute that helps her achieve most of her goals. and also makes her develop a thick skin to withstand and confront all the challenges she encountered while growing up as a young girl.  One of such challenges occurs when her father dies and she is sent to live with her mother’s brother. when she could not pay for her entrance examination, she cunningly obtains money from her cousin and the fact that she receives one hundred and fifty strokes of canes and this makes her a strong will and stubborn child.  For instance, Adah learned very early to be responsible for herself.  Nobody was interested in her for her own sake, only in the money she would fetch, and the housework she could do and Adah is happy at being given this opportunity to survive” (18).  This desire to persevere and survive in her society is what leads. Adah on her journey through life. It is also the driving force behind her desire to never give up on her dream.

 

 Adah is also a responsible mother per-excellence who cares a great deal for her children and she is ever ready to spoil them with all the goodies in the world, unlike Francis who denies them and disowns them and even wishes to put them on for adoption when the children need him most like their father.   At the beginning, Adah tries to avoid marriage until she realizes that marriage might be her only way to continue on with her dreams.

 

 As an independent worker and a go-getter, Adah is poised to work and contribute to the family and she is certain that she must care for her five children when she eventually divorces Francis.  “Don’t worry, The children are mine and that is enough, I shall never let them down as long as I am alive” (191)

 

 Adah is a Christian to the core who prays fervently for her family but does not have time to go to church in England.  Adah is also characterized throughout the novel by her sense of initiative and determination to change her course in life.

 

2.   FRANCIS OBI:

 

 Francis is Adah’s wedded husband.  He’s Ibo by tribe and he is from humble poor background, but just cannot bail himself out of the shackles of penury and want.  For instance, Adah’s mother and relatives could not come for her wedding because Francis is too poor to afford the cost of the bride price they ask for.  The Priest refuses to join them since they could not also afford a ring.

 

Francis is also a very quiet young man who is reading to be an accountant.  As a poor student in Lagos, Francis appears not to be a good match to Adah because in terms of character and approach to life, they are two parallel lines.  Though, he is originally an instrument in helping Adah achieve her dreams by moving to London, but it becomes apparent that he is a dreamer who goes about thinking manna will fall for heaven.  Francis proves himself otherwise when he burns the manuscript of Adah’s first novel.

 

 Francis is visionless and dogmatic.  This means that he’s careless and does not seem to be bothered about how to improve on the well-being of his wife and family, he’s only interested in giving birth to those children. Francis is not also interested in getting a reasonable job in order to contribute his own quota to the family, but rather he becomes the big distraction to Ada’s dream.

 

 Also, he is violent and cannot serve as a role model to his children.  He physically and emotionally bullies maltreats, and beats Adah, especially when Adah tries to persuade him to get a job.  To Adah, Francis is like a parasite who depends on its host to feed, for Francis depends on Adah’s salary to travel to London and still depends on her for many years over there.  In England, his lifestyle is now characterized by gross antisocial behavior, a feeling of inferiority, laziness utter irresponsibility.

 

3.   MA:

 

Ma is Adah’s mother and she does not have another name.  She is caught in the same web with African women who believe that a girl-child is of less value and must be treated as subhuman, denied the right ascribed to the male children.  She refuses to register Adah who is eight years old in a school when Boy is already in an expensive school.

 

Adah gets Ma into trouble when she sneaks out of the house when Ma is busy, to attend a school where one of their neighbors teaches.  Ma is duly punished by the police for child neglect.  She is asked to drink a bowl of garri before Adah is finally enrolled in a school. When Pa dies, she is inherited by  Pa’s brother who maltreats her, and this angers Adah, and they accuse Ma of remarrying another man; an act Adah considers as a betrayal of Pa.

 

4.  PA:

 

 Pa is Adah’s father and Ma’s husband.  He is also a true believer of their tradition – a kind of belief system that considers male children to be more essential than the female.  His mother died when he’s just five years old, The fact that he believes in reincarnation makes him call Adah ‘Nnenna’ which means father’s mother.  Adah’s birth is attributed to the second coming of Pa’s mother who promised to return to compensate him for leaving him early enough.  He sees Adah as his comeback mother.

 

           The death of Pa causes a setback on Adah’s education before she is handed over to a relative as servant-cum slave.  Pa goes to the hospital and his corpse is brought home a week after for burial.

    

5.  BOY:

 

  Boy is Adah’s blood brother.  His birth is considered to be the most essential thing that has ever happened to the family, while that of Adah is considered to be a mistake.  Boy is, therefore, registered in Ladi-lak College, one of the most expensive schools in Lagos and a considerable amount of one are set aside for his education.  “It was decided that the money in the family, a hundred pounds or two would be spent on Boy’s education (18).  So Boy is cut out for a bright future, with a grammar school education.

 

 Boy feels disappointed by Adah’s actions and for letting their family down while she proceeds with the wedding, even when they refuse to attend.  As a result, he refuses to visit.  Adah.

 

6.  LAWYER NWEZE:

 

     Nweze is the first lawyer in Ibuza, and everyone admires him because he’s someone who has tasted what civilization looks like?  This time, the people are set to welcome him home.  The women of Ibuza are busy composing and rehearsing songs to welcome him from Wharf.  Upon his arrival, it is noticeable that he could not swallow pounded yam anymore, he could not even eat a piece of bone.  “The meat they cooked for him has to be stewed for days until it was almost a pulp”  (16).  One good thing that the people respect him for is the fact that he did not bring a white woman with him like the rest of been-to.  All Pa’s friends agree with him that he’s a good man because if he had brought a white woman to Ibuza Oboshi would have sent leprosy on the woman.

 

           Lawyer Nweze is a source of inspiration and motivation for Adah.  His personality sparks fire that propels.  Adah wants to go to the United Kingdom one day, and she keeps the dream to herself, but her dreams soon assume substance.  It lives with her, just like a presence.

7.     TRUDY:

 

Trudy is a British woman who is a child daily minders. She is introduced to Adah by Babalola, her own compatriot.  Her job is to dress children and take care of them before their parents call for them. She is clean and well dressed and very friendly outwardly, but a dirty woman to the core.  Her house, like all the houses in that area, is a slum-a house that has been condemned ages ago.  The back yard is filled with rubbish, broken furniture, and very near an uncovered dustbin is a toilet.

 

          Adah decides to visit her children one day unannounced and she meets her two children in the refuse dump area.  Vicky is busy pulling rubbish out of the bin and Titi is washing her hands and face with the water leaking from the toilet.  A few days later, Vicky fells sick and he’s diagnosed with a virus called meningitis.  The chance of his survival is very slim.  When confronted to inquire about the outcome of the disease. She lies about it, and the council removes her name from the list of approved child-minders.  Trudy therefore, is also a cheat, a liar, and her personality a sort of vulgarity.

 

 

8.   MR. NOBILE:

 

          Mr. Noble is Sue’s husband and he’s a Nigeria- an only son of a certain chief in Benin City.  He has six wives and about twenty children and he left them in Nigeria  to come to England to read law but fails to make it. His failure is due to gross miscalculation.

 

The pension and gratuity money he brought with him was not even enough to see him through GCE or matriculation.  So he keeps failing and failing until the money is exhausted.  He searches for jobs from one office to another with no success.  He, therefore, condescends to take up a menial job and also makes a mess of himself when he takes up a railway job that renders one of his shoulders incapacitated.  He uses the money the railway authorities pensioned him with a second time to buy a house.  It is this same Mr.  Noble that accommodates Adah and her family when they were ejected from their house as a result of race relations.  He is homely, accommodating, generous and humble.

 

9.  MR. BABALOLAAND JANET:

 

 Mr. Babalola who is a Muslim and a Nigerian is Janet’s husband is also Adah’s friend. Mr. Babalola had come to England just like Francis and Adah to study.  But unlike Adah and Francis, he had been single and had a Northern Nigerian scholarship.  He’s therefore, regarded as a rich student, and he likes to spend money and enjoys himself.  His life philosophy is that Allah would take care of the future.

 

Janet on the other hand got pregnant by a West Indian and got kicked out by her parents because she refuses to give up her baby.  Babaola ends up taking her in and uses her as a party favor for his friends.   “Most of Adah’s neighbors had had their sexual advantages with Janet”.  Babalola soon realizes that Janet can receive enough social assistance for herself and her baby  He keeps Janet all to himself and she bears him a child.  Babalola, like Francis, seems content to depend on woman financially, while still treating these women like servants.

 

10.          MR. COLE:

 

  Mr. Cole is a teacher and Adah’s neighbor. He is a handsome, huge young Sierra Leonean who teaches at the school that Adah goes to when her parents refused to enroll him at the tender age of eight.  Mr. Cole willingly accepts Adah into the class and advises her to come some other time.  “I come to school – my parents would not send me!” (12) Adah bellows and Mr. Cole responds “Yes, of course, she could again if she likes, But if her parents would not allow her to come, he would take it upon himself to teach her the alphabet.

 

11.              OKPARA:

 

 Okpara is another Nigerian, Ibo by the tribe that came to England to study. He comes to know Adah at the time she was facing marital tribulations. He implores Adah to seek forgiveness.  “Let go and beg his forgiveness. He would let you in” in typical Ibo psychology; men never do wrong, only the women; they have to beg for forgiveness because they are bought, paid for, and must remain like that, like silent obedient slaves.

 

 Okpara is a good responsible husband, and he admits to Adah that he  still quarrels with his wife, but he would never beat his wife because quarrels have a way of building the home.

 

 

NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES

(LANGUAGE AND STYLE)

 

·        DICTION:   

Second-Class Citizen Comprises thirteen chapters, each chapter has a title which aids complete understand of incidents in the novel. These chapters help to know the growth of Adah as an ambitious lady – her childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.  The language of the narrative is simple and easy to understand.  There is the insertion of Ibo word coinages into the narration as a means of foregrounding of the setting of the novel as a rustic, traditionally-oriented Ibo community called Ibuza.

 

Coinages and Neologism

 

 Some words are formed from the existing lexical stock in English. Examples from the text are “lappas”  (2) from wrapper, 3 “pilizon” (7) from prison, “made man” (17) refers to a successful man, “Touch Not” (22) being very sensitive to torch, “Been to” – a Lagos phrase for those who have been to England at that time (24) Other are coined from the existing stock in mother tongue (Nigerian Languages).  They are ‘craw craw’ – (5) to refer to rashes, “boli” (6) – refers to roasted plantain, “koboko” (17) – pidgin word for a long cane made from cowhide

 

Use of Indigenous Language

 

There are instances where the writer has used indigenous languages. They include:

- Ezidiji ji de ogoli, ome oba – (Igbo) meaning, “When a good man holds a woman, she becomes like the queen (15)

-Iyawo (92) – Yoruba word for a young wife, “Opoho” (103) – Igbo word for a woman “Okei” (103) – Igbo word for young man “Odo (154) – Igbo word for mortar.

 

 

·        Use of proverbs and Wise Sayings

 

 Proverbs and sayings are often used to express truth or give advice and consolation.  The author uses them to add force to a point being made.  They also add colour to the narrative.  Some of the examples are:

(1) “A hungry dog does not play with one with an empty stomach.

     (2) “When a good man holds a woman she becomes a queen”

          (3) “Mr. Noble’s friends of the happier days took to their heals”

          (4) “Adah was a thorn in Francis’s flesh” 

 

·        Point of View

 

Buchi Emecheta employs the third person omniscient point of view.  Whereby the narration is carried out not by any of the characters in the novel but an outsider, who sees all and knows all.  Hence the presentation of the events are as perceived by a narrator who is not without self-center information, but one who knows everything about Adah, Francis, and other characters.  The reader learns about the characters and their experiences from what the narrator says and what the characters say in the few dialogues which are introduced to make the narrative lively.                                                           

 

·        Use of Suspense

 

 Suspense is employed to create an air of expectancy and curiosity in the reader.  For instance, when Francis leaves for London and Adah is left behind, the reader is desperate to find out the possibility of Adah realizing her childhood dream before she manipulates her way to join Francis, It is also seen when Vicky contracts the virus called meningitis. The reader is desperate to know what will happen to the child and Adah, since Adah has also declared that her marriage is hanging in the balance if anything happens to Vicky.

 

 

LIKELY WAEC AND NECO 2021-2025 QUESTIONS.

 

1.      Discuss the theme of racism based on stigma and stereotype in the novel.

2.      Trace Adah’s persistence to pursue her dream in life.  Explain where her 

 Inspirations come from and why is it that she does not ever give up

 when faced with road-block?

3.      Examine the theme of determination and hard work in Emecheta’s

 Second-Class Citizen.

4.      Evaluate Adah as a dutiful and workaholic lover.

5.      Comment on house-hunting in England and its significance in the novel.

6.      To what extent can it be said that Francis love for Adah is conditional

 and parasites?

7.      With adequate illustration, discuss any three narrative devices employed

 by the novelist.

8.      Comment on Francis’s attitude towards family planning gear.

9.      How does the setting contribute to the development of the plot of the novel?

10.                         Assess the use of language and style in the novel.

11.                         Comment on the role played by tradition and superstitions in the lives

 of Ibuza people.

12.                         Attempt character portrait of Francis.

13.                         Examine the character of Adah as a dreamer and a go-better in the novel.

14.                         Assess the theme of love and marriage in the novel

15.                         Comment on the use of language in the novel.

16.                         “Mr. Noble is a direct contrast to Francis? Discuss

17.                         With adequate illustration, discuss lawyer Nweze as the true role model

 to the people of Ibuza.

18.                         What does Second-Class Citizen say about female education?

19.                         Discuss at least three thematic preoccupation of the second-class Citizen

20.                         How appropriate is the title, Second-Class Citizen to the narrative

21.                         Examine the role of Trudy as a white Character pointing out the significance of the novel.

22.                         “Hardships and struggles are the engine that oil the dream of Adah”. Discuss

23.                         Comment on the experience of Adah while raising her four children

 in a hostile environment.

24.                         Discuss the point of view employed in Second-Class citizen.

25.                         Give a detailed account of Adah’s encounter with Trudy, whose personality

 is a sort of vulgarity.

26.                         Highlight some of the actions of Adah which spark the ember of fire between her and Francis.

27.                         “Adah’s visit to Trudy is an eye-opener”, Justify this view

28.                         Write short notes on the following (a) Mr. Babalola (b) Mr. Cole 

 (c) Mr. Noble.

29.                         Trace in succession the actions leading to a final divorce between Adah

 and Francis.

30.                         How far is it correct to describe Francis as a lazy fellow?