Question 2
BUCHI EMECHETA: Second Class Citizens
Examine Mr. Noble’s means of evicting his ‘controlled tenants’
Observation
This question is on the means Mr Noble uses to evict his long-term tenants. Many candidates wrongly dwelt so much on the death of one of the twins as a result of witchcraft.
Candidates were expected to discuss the following:
- The operation of law in a country of the rule of law is a theme that runs through the novel.
- Character identification: Mr. Noble is a prince of Benin City, who ‘came to England to read law’ but ‘failed to make it’; ends up as a liftman who gets injured at work and is paid ‘a lump sum compensation for his injury’; Mr. Noble’s ‘controlled tenants’ are two ‘sisters who had been born in the house’.
- Mr. Noble decides to use ‘psychological pressure’ by telling ‘the old ladies that his mother was the greatest witch in the whole of Black Africa.
- Mr. Noble gets his property back, but earns a reputation: it goes round ‘that Mr. Noble could kill’ and the place is avoided by prospective tenants who are not in dire need. The house dilapidates
- His investment thus fails as no one wants to stay in the house.
Candidates’ performance in this question was average.