SECOND CLASS CITIZEN THEMES
The Plight of the Oppressed
The title of the book itself indicates its overarching theme. As with much of the author’s body of
work, this novel is concerned with exposing the difficulties of being part of an oppressed societal
group—in this case, an African immigrant to the UK. The groups comprising the oppressed are
hardly limited to just one single identifier, as the forces of oppression are realized in the form of
racism, misogyny, class, and xenophobia. Emecheta's tone is one of empathy and understanding
toward those whose lives are constant struggles against entrenched powers.
Marriage as Tyranny
The portrait of marriage presented in the novel is anything but the fairy-tale, happily-ever-after
illusion of romance. Marital bliss is secondary to marital disturbance as the course of true love is
permanently obstructed by patriarchal domination and the desire to subjugate the wife which
only ever serves to engender feelings of regret and resentment in the wife toward the husband.
The inevitable paradox is that both unsuccessful and successful rebellion of the oppressed party
engineers a tearing apart of the social fabric that marriage as a contractual endeavor is intended
to reinforce.
Anti-Immigrant Prejudice
Focusing on British policies in particular, the novel is an unblinking presentation of how deep
and widespread anti-immigrant feelings run among the natives. The story reveals the country—
but especially London—to be a festering boil of racial hostility that may be revealed explicitly
and without shame or may be expressed in more repressed ways that fail in the effort to hide the
true feelings of those who may feel compelled to present a more accepting and empathetic
façade. The message is that Britons are inherently undesiring of any foreigners interrupting their
way of life, but are far more likely to be vehemently so when the foreigners arrive from cultures
dominated by darker pigments in their skin.
Motherhood
Adah is a fierce mother, protective of her children and always advocating for their safety and
selfhood and trying to instill pride in their Blackness. She wants a career, yes, but she is
unequivocally devoted to her children. She has an instinctual understanding of what they need
and want, though she often struggles to be the sort of mother she wants to be in this foreign land
of London. Adah also sees motherhood through a feminist lens—as a choice women should be
able to make, evinced in how she seeks contraceptives and abortion pills in order to control her
reproductive abilities.
Feminism
The feminist lens with which we may want to regard the novel is anachronistic, but that does not
mean Adah does not evince qualities, characteristics, and behaviors that point to a feminist ethos.
She wants to balance motherhood and a career; she wants to make choices about her own body;
she wants to develop her own identity. She is an imperfect feminist model in terms of her
marriage to Francis, who is unequivocally an abuser, as well as her lack of interest in supporting
other women, but overall we can analyze many aspects of her character in terms of proto-
feminism.
The Welfare State
Britain's welfare state comes under Emecheta's keen gaze in this novel. Sometimes it seems to
function well enough, and Adah benefits from its offering. However, it is also depicted as
problematic, especially for women and immigrants (of which Adah is both). As a woman, Adah
is subject to rules that privilege male control over women, and as an immigrant, Adah has to deal
with the immensity of the system without much help at all.
Race and Class
Britain is typically viewed as a place that struggles more with class than race, but for immigrants,
those two categories are inextricable. Adah and Francis's Blackness precludes their getting
affordable housing, as well as dictates how they are generally treated. It initially pushes them
into a lower class, though Adah's tenacity and intelligence help propel the family forward a bit.
Adah struggles with the conflation of race and class, for she cannot fathom how she has to
inhabit the same spaces as people who would have been servants of hers back in Nigeria.