NECO GCE 2021 LITERATURE PROSE AND OBJ ANSWERS

LITERATURE OBJ

1-10: ECECBEBBCC

11-20: BAADABDEAC

21-30: EDADDBEECD

31-40: EAEEAEBBDD

41-50: ABAADEAECD

51-60: CBBDAABDEB

(1)

As an autobiographical novel, Buchi Emecheta’s Second-Class Citizen (1974) reflects the struggles of

Nigerian immigrants, especially that of Emecheta’s fictional representative, Adah Obi and her family,

depicting the progression of Adah’s life including her childhood in Lagos, her marriage and children, her

immigration to Britain and her divorce in 1960.

In the first two chapters of Second-Class Citizen, it is possible to notice the impact of British colonial

rule on Nigerian people and thereby to find evidence about the perception of Britain as a dream land. As

McLeod states, colonialism was maintained “by persuading people to internalise its logic and speak its

language; to perpetuate the values and assumptions of the colonisers as regards the ways they perceive and

represent the world” (18).

Thus, during the colonial rule, English language, British education, British missionaries, Anglican

Church and British institutions produced false perception of Britain, which prepared the colonised to

immigrate to Britain since they considered Britain as a land of dream where they can fulfil their desires. With regard to the Nigerian immigrants, most of them, like Emecheta’s husband, Francis, were students intending

to earn a degree in Britain and return to Nigeria. Emecheta then describes why these Nigerian students

chose Britain as follows:

These groups of men calculated that with independence would come prosperity, the opportunity for

self-rule, posh vacant jobs, and more money, plenty of it. One had to be eligible for these jobs,

though, thought these men. The only place to secure this eligibility, this passport to prosperity, was

England. They must come to England, get a quick degree in Law and go back to rule their country.

What could be more suitable? (SC, 1994: 81)

Accordingly, these men left their jobs, their families and “packed their bags for the trip to the United

Kingdom in search of education, in search of eligibility” (SC, 1994: 81).

In this sense, the narrator gives details about the return of one of these men, the first lawyer of the

town, Lawyer Nweze. The preparations of Ibuza women for the lawyer and their expectations from him are

therefore apparent reflections of a colonial outlook since the high value is attached to him and the arrival of

this new lawyer means the “arrival of their own Messiah” (SC, 1994: 2).

It is easily noticeable that Adah, too, is attracted by the exaggerated stories about Britain, which has

created a false perception of Britain as well as a temptation to go to Britain. In this respect, her decision to go

to Britain is evidently stimulated by the influence of the British missionaries on Adah at the Methodist Girls’

High School in Lagos; that is the Anglican belief and teaching, together with the influence of colonialism.

In addition to the influences of colonialism and Anglicanism on Nigerian people, poverty and lack of

opportunities in their homeland forced Nigerians to immigrate Britain as is evident by Papa Noble’s

Papa Noble told them that he was born in a tree. His mother fed him on bosom milk until he was

almost twelve. He had to be weaned because he was by then old enough to join the menfolk in the

farm work. He never wore clothes until he was taken into the army. Yes, he said, all children in

Nigeria were brought up like that. There was no food, people died of dysentery every day. He ate

meat only twice in the year during the yam festival and the festival of his father’s gods. In fact, he

only started to live when he came to England (SC, 1994: 95-96).

In a likely manner, Adah hopes to raise her social position in her homeland after spending some

time in Britain because “[s]he knew that all she did would go towards making her young family into a

family of Igbo élites, just like Lawyer Nweze of Ibuza” (SC, 1994: 21). It is obvious that as the former colonial

power, Britain still refers to prosperity, good education, good career and success for nearly all the Nigerians

including Adah.

(7i)
Mr Lockwood’s; Lockwood’s narration forms a frame around Nelly’s; he serves as an intermediary between Nelly and the reader. A somewhat vain and presumptuous gentleman, he deals very clumsily with the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights. Lockwood comes from a more domesticated region of England, and he finds himself at a loss when he witnesses the strange household’s disregard for the social conventions that have always structured his world. As a narrator, his vanity and unfamiliarity with the story occasionally lead him to misunderstand events.

(7ii)
Hareton Earnshaw; The son of Hindley and Frances Earnshaw, Hareton is Catherine’s nephew. After Hindley’s death, Heathcliff assumes custody of Hareton, and raises him as an uneducated field worker, just as Hindley had done to Heathcliff himself. Thus Heathcliff uses Hareton to seek revenge on Hindley. Illiterate and quick-tempered, Hareton is easily humiliated, but shows a good heart and a deep desire to improve himself. At the end of the novel, he marries young Catherine.