Who is Fay in Second Class Citizen?

Fay in Second Class Citizen is a worker at Chalk Farm Library. Chalk Farm Library happens to be the same place where Adah works. This is after her eventful pregnancy and birth of Bubu, her third child and second son.

However, just like Mr Barking, Fay is a minor character in Second Class Citizen. She, too, just like Mr Barking, appears momentarily in Chapter 12 of Second Class Citizen.

I’ve said it in another post that all we know about Mr Barking is that he is a worker at Chalk Farm Library who has a daughter about whom he is always thinking.

Please do not forget, also, that it is still in Chapter 12 of this novel by Buchi Emecheta that we come into contact with Bill, the handsome Canadian and Peggy, the not-so-attractive, young Irish woman.

Who is Fay?

So who is Fay exactly? Has she got any role to play in Second Class Citizen?

Well, I’m going to show you, right away, all you need to know about Fay in Second Class Citizen. I mean you will get the points you need to answer any question, be it objective or essay, on the character and role of Fay in Second Class Citizen.

So, if you’re ready to take all the information about the character of Fay, come and let’s get going.

`The Character of Fay

Fay is a mulatress, meaning she is of a mixed-race identity.

She is about thirty years old and works at Chalk Farm Library. Thus, Fay is a librarian and Adah’s fellow workplace colleague.

One interesting fact to note about Fay is that she is a young woman who thinks she is “too white” to consider herself a black person. And, for that matter, she does not associate with black people.

Unlike Adah, Fay is unmarried but in a relationship with a young man who is a Law student at Cambridge University.

Fay’s boyfriend appears to be a violent character, judging by the way he smashed Fay’s car.

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Moreover, unlike Peggy her co-worker at Chalk Farm Library, Fay is stunningly beautiful “in a film star type of way”. She has a smooth, glossy skin, a perfect figure and thick beautiful hair.

The Role of Fay in Second Class Citizen

We can say that in a limited way, Fay contributes to at least two major themes in the novel.

The Theme of Race Relations

For some reason, Fay does not want to have anything to do with blacks. This is despite the fact that people of mixed black and white ancestry are generally considered to be black.

Hers is a complicated racial identity issue. Like people of her type, she is torn between two different races. One is willing to accept her but she doesn’t think she belongs there. The other (white people) would have nothing to do with her. Because they do not think she is white enough.

It is these disturbing reality of race relations in England at the time that makes life difficult, not only for full-blooded blacks but also for people from a mixed race parentage.

Fay is keenly aware that identifying with blacks makes her look and feel inferior and underprivileged. Knowing that she has an equal claim to identifying with white folk, she is in a state of an identity crisis.

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Racial prejudice and discrimination in the United Kingdom are, therefore, the source of the snobbish attitude of mulattoes like Fay towards her black compatriots.

Theme of Violence in Relationships

The narrator uses Fay to explore further the theme of violence in relationships in Second Class Citizen.

We see Fay’s car in a bad shape in the novel. Her Cambridge Law student boyfriend is violent enough to smash her car.

This reminds of countless violent incidents in Adah’s marriage. The many beatings Adah receives at the hands of Francis and the burning of the manuscript of Adah’s maiden novel, The Bride Price, are a stark reminder of male brutalities that go unpunished in all relationships and in all societies.

Thus, Fay, in a way, helps bring to the fore, once again, the themes of racism and gender-based inequality and violence in the novel.

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Conclusion

We have been looking at the character of Fay in Second Class Citizen. We noted that Fay is mentioned only briefly in the novel. However, she has made some contribution to the development of such serious themes as racial discrimination and violence perpetrated by the male gender in too many relationships.

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