Comment on the mother-child bond in Second-Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta.
Buchi Emecheta's Second-Class Citizen explores the mother-child bond by showing Adah's deep, protective love for her children and her willingness to do whatever she must to make sure that they have a chance at a good life.
Over the course of the novel, Adah has five children with her...
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husband, Francis, and she usually has to care for them completely on her own. She vows to do exactly that. When she arrives in London, Adah already has two children, Titi and Vicky. Life in England is not at all what Adah has expected. It is very difficult to find good childcare. Adah must work so Francis can study, but he does not want to care for the children. The "daily-minder" Adah places them with does not care for them well, and Vicky gets very sick. Adah refuses to back down in her complaints, and officials eventually take her seriously. The children get a better place. Adah is willing to take every risk for them.
Francis eventually leaves Adah, after beating her severely. Adah takes him to court, and he denies being the father of the children. Adah knows what she must do. She claims the children and determines that she will do whatever she must to raise them right and give them opportunities she has never had. Adah is fully committed to her children. Her bond with them is unshakable, and she will give everything she has for them.
Comment on the mother-child bond in Buchi Emecheta's Second-Class Citizen.
In Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta, the protagonist, Adah, works to escape her restrictive life in Nigeria. Her goal becomes increasingly specific as she desires to move to the United Kingdom and to provide her children with a different life and different opportunities than she ever had access to before.
The mother-child bond is central in this story. Adah’s husband, Francis, is already in the UK and becoming more and more dismissive of his wife, even becoming emotionally abusive. Adah is the sole caretaker of her young children. She loves her children and wants much for them, but she also knows that children restrict her options. Motherhood limits and negatively impacts her ability to create the life she wants. This echoes the long-discussed struggle women face as ambitious professionals and mothers and how these two roles can have conflicting expectations.
Adah’s husband puts her down and humiliates her as she pursues a career as a writer. However, Adah shows steadfast perseverance in the face of societal pushback and fights for both her independence and a better future for her children.