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SS1: LITERATURE-IN-ENGLISH - 2ND TERM

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  1. African Prose

    African Prose: Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta | Week 1
    5 Topics
    |
    1 Quiz
  2. Themes in Second Class Citizen | Week 2
    3 Topics
    |
    1 Quiz
  3. Characterization and Narrative Techniques in Second Class Citizen | Week 3
    2 Topics
    |
    1 Quiz
  4. Non-African Prose
    Non-African Prose: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison | Week 4
    4 Topics
  5. Themes in Invisible Man | Week 5
    3 Topics
    |
    1 Quiz
  6. Characterization and Narrative Technique in Invisible Man | Week 6
    2 Topics
    |
    1 Quiz
  7. African Poetry
    “Black Woman” by Leopold Sedar Senghor | Week 7
    6 Topics
    |
    1 Quiz
  8. Themes and Poetic Devices in “Black Woman” | Week 8
    2 Topics
    |
    1 Quiz
  9. Non-African Poetry
    "Bat" by D.H. Lawrence | Week 9
    5 Topics
    |
    1 Quiz
  10. Themes and Poetic Devices in "Bat" by D.H. Lawrence | Week 10
    2 Topics
    |
    1 Quiz
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Topic Content:

  • The Omniscient Narrative Point of View
  • Suspense
  • Allusion
  • Foreshadowing
  • Essay Questions and Answers

1. The Omniscient Narrative Point of View:

The author uses the omniscient narrative point of view. This is also called the third-person narrative technique. In this narrative technique, the narrator appears to know all about the characters in the novel. The narrator is able to relay the story from a detached angle making the readers access it more objectively. This point of view also allows readers unlimited access to the lives of the characters in the novel. For instance, the narrator frequently reveals Adah’s mind to readers to enable them to access her thoughts regarding her motivations and determination.

2. Suspense: 

This refers to the narrative technique which helps the writer to make readers anxious to know what would happen next in a novel. The reader uses this technique to build up the anxiety of readers as well as sustain their interest in the novel. For instance, Adah’s unilateral decision to go to school without the consent and knowledge of her parents.

Adah’s action (her first day in school) gives rise to suspense, as readers wonder what will happen to Adah as she goes to school. 

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Question 1

Question:

Life is what you make of it. Discuss the common phrase with specific references to Second Class Citizen.

Answer:

The common phrase “life is what you make of it” portrays the theme of dream and reality in Second Class Citizen.

Second Class Citizen is a story of dreams and their actualization. Adah is the dreamer in the positive sense. Unfortunately for Adah, fate and the culture into which she has been born will place roadblocks on her path to making her dreams a reality, but the stubborn female she is surmounts these roadblocks. Adah is a stubborn woman. From the onset, Adah is presented to us as a recalcitrant fellow who takes her fate into her own hands.

From childhood, she has refused to accept the place given to her, either by her parents or any other person. She rejects the idea of Boy, getting educated because he is male while as a girl child, she is denied education. Adah does not accept her mother’s presumption that a female child does not need to learn a lot.

The novel opens with Adah’s dream of attending a very good school. She goes out of her way to actualize the dream; steals from the house and finds herself at the school where she is well-received by Mr. Cole, her Sierra Leonean neighbour. She damns the consequence she will suffer from her parents. She tells Mr. Cole who is surprised to see her “I came to school, my parents would not send me”. Her dream of going to school continues to build up even as she comes face to face with obstacles.

It’s time to progress to the next level of her education. She does not know how to advance. Her father is dead and her mother is given out to her father’s brother for remarriage. Her maternal uncle she now lives with will never support her education. Adah wiggles out this dilemma. She converts the two shillings she is asked to do something to pay for her entrance examination into Methodist Girls School. Adah passes the examination with flying colours and gets a scholarship.

Meanwhile, she witnesses the celebration that is staged by the men and women of Ibuza to welcome their first son Lawyer from the United Kingdom. To Adah, Lawyer Nweze epitomizes a great achiever.

For the manner Ibuza people honour their first son who studied in England, Adah “made a secret vow to herself that she would go to the United Kingdom one day”. From this moment, Adah starts dreaming of travelling to England. She pursues her dreams doggedly.

While at the university, she meets Francis Obi. She attaches herself to him because it is a sure ticket for her to stay away from her already broken family. Having gotten married, she plans with Francis to travel to England. Again an obstacle rears its head to kill this dream.

Francis’ parents prevent her from going to England with Francis. She eventually persuades her mother-in-law and gets her approval to join Francis in England.

In England, some of the main points of struggle for Adah are being a black woman in a predominantly white society, learning of the women’s rights movement during the seventies, the fact there is birth control available to her, and the struggle to pursue between four children and a lazy abusive husband. So many issues are interconnected and related to one another and also one woman. Just as Adah starts to find hope, another circumstance arises. One then wonders how one woman can put up with so much, yet be so strong not only for herself but also for her children. She neither gives up on them nor her dreams, not even when her first piece of work was burnt by her husband. Adah fights valiantly to transform her dreams into reality.

Question 2

Question:

Discuss Adah as a protagonist in Second Class Citizen

Answer:

The protagonist is the main character in a novel. Adah is the main character in Second Class Citizen. She is also a round character and the heroine of the story. The story starts with her and ends with her. She develops positively throughout the story. The entire story revolves around her. She sets the story with her dream. A dream that contrasts with the value of the society into which she is born.

Adah begins to grapple with the intrigues in her life at an early stage. She is not valued by her parents and the society because she is a female. Therefore, for her to be successful, she has to go the extra mile to do the extraordinary. Adah makes a bold step to steal out of the house to go to school. Like a true protagonist, she damns the consequence of her daring behaviour. She repeats this behaviour when she finds herself at a crossroads at the end of her primary education. She takes her destiny effectively into her hands. She exhibits an unequalled boldness and courage just when the need arises.

Sometimes Adah combines her courage with deception to deal with a challenge. She flatters and tricks her mother-in-law to get the approval for her release to join her husband Francis in England. As the protagonist of the novel, Adah has to grow in order to ensure the continuity of the story. Thus she proceeds to England.

On arriving in England, Adah does not lose focus. She needs to actualize her dreams. She holds on to Western education as a formidable tool to overcome her challenges. If she could get an enviable job in Lagos after her degree, she is very sure she would do better in England. Adah rejects the role of a Second Class Citizen. Even though she is surrounded by a lot of Nigerians including her husband who has been subdued to accept the status of Second Class Citizen, she maintains herself in high esteem, and this pays off. She is rewarded with a very good job like all other first-class citizens. She continues to grow in the story as the protagonist. Following her experience at North Finchley Library and subsequent interactions with her colleagues at the Chalk Farm Library, she decides to write books for publication. She has never embarked on anything and failed. She holds on to the dream of writing books until her valuable manuscript is burnt by Francis. For this and so many other reasons ranging from laziness to irresponsibility, she divorces Francis and moves on with her life and children.

As a protagonist of the novel, Adah is the central character in the novel. Most of the themes in the novel are portrayed through her perceptions, actions and reactions in the story. The themes of class and gender discrimination, racial discrimination and oppression, dream and reality, superstitions, the strength of the mother-child bond, women as second-rate citizens in traditional African thought, and the disappointments of African migrants in Britain and so many others are all revealed through the character of Adah. The novel begins and ends with Adah as the heroine, she actualizes her dream of becoming a very successful woman and mother in spite of all the obstacles she encounters in the story.

Question 2

Question:

Why does Mr Noble find it difficult to evict his tenants?

Answer:

In ‘Second Class Citizen’, Mr. Noble finds it difficult to evict his tenants due to several reasons. Firstly, he is bound by the legal and contractual obligations that protect the rights of the tenants. Evicting them without a valid reason could lead to legal consequences. Secondly, Mr. Noble is also influenced by his moral and ethical considerations. Despite his personal discomfort with the tenants, he recognizes their right to shelter and is reluctant to render them homeless. Lastly, Mr. Noble is also aware of the social implications of eviction. He fears the potential backlash from the community and the damage to his reputation. Therefore, these legal, ethical, and social factors make it difficult for Mr. Noble to evict his tenants.

 

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