Fighting: No Matter Where You Are

Yuxi Yang

History 12

Prof. Robert G. Moeller

March 2, 2015

Fighting: No Matter Where You Are

The basic theme of this novel is one of vehement animosity at the gender discrimination that is often found in the culture of Adah’s people. She is characterized as having the initiative and determination to get what she wants — the Western education being denied to her. She is also encumbered because of the gender discrimination that is the foundation of her marriage. Adah is forced to support the family and is responsible for the children. According to my colleague, he thinks the author’s original title is good since the word Journey reflects her journey to England and also reflects her journey to growth. However, the title Second Class citizen will point out all Adah’s unequal experiences are related to herself directly. Through her unequal accesses to western education and unfair treatments of housing, Emecheta suggests that the deepest reason of her experiences is her citizenship, a female and an African.

Adah is not only a second citizen in England but also in her own country since she is a girl. Though her gender defines her social status, she still has equal rights like attending Sunday church school in Nigeria. This opportunity of education plants a seed of hope in Adah’s heart. During her early age, Adah is fighting for her rights to gain western education. As part of the colonial educational system, outstanding students can travel to Europe to study. Because Nigeria was a British colony, the United Kingdom becomes the land that Adah often hears about as a child and also the place from which people in her town have come from. After Adah’s father died, she moves to live with her mother’s brothers. And then her relatives’ intentions to further her study are different from hers. The meaning of education in her relatives’ minds is "the longer she stayed at school, the bigger the dowry her future husband would pay for her." (17) They treat Adah’s education as an investment, hoping to receive a higher bride price in the future. On the contrary, people in Nigeria think men have privileges to study and women should spend their time at home with the housework and children.

The second class citizenship accompanies Adah after she leaves Nigeria. After fighting with every method, Adah finally goes to the England. Because Adah is a black woman in a predominantly white society, her life becomes harder and harder. For instance, when they are kicked out by the landlord without any notice, “nobody would consider accommodating them, even when they were willing to pay double,” (71) it is very hard to find a place to live elsewhere since most British people do not offer housing to colored people. The unequal experiences become worse when Adah is a female and also an Africa, which she has never realized her ethnic is also a problem before. No white family will lease a room to them, though they finally find a house does not mention no coloreds and is vacant. After seeing Adah and her husband are African, the landlord “…telling them now that she was very sorry, the rooms had just gone”. (77) The landlord refuses to give them room simply because they are black. With the time Adah spends longer in the England, her wish to be a first class citizen becomes stronger. She never gives up the rights she has and also asks for more rights as a second class citizen.