Although Buchi Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen and Caryl Phillips’s The Final Passage were written ten years apart they display many similarities. Both of the novels depict female protagonists, Adah and Leila respectively, who were born and bred in former British colonies, namely Nigeria and St. Kitts, who find themselves benefiting from the British colonial education system. Both heroines end up in relations with less qualified and low achiever, irresponsible husbands and are doubly colonised in a sense. The destination of both these female figures is England “the mother country” where they hope to realise dreams, live better lives as preached to them by the colonial education system. These two heroines who also bear children, do reach their geographic destinations and both in the adaptation process break free from their unsuccessful marriage bondage. From this point onward although both do manage to survive in their new homelands, the similarities seem to end. Adah who is more ambitious, builds herself and her children a new life in London, working and studying and adapting well to the new country, Leila on the other hand barely survives. For Adah London does become the land of freedom, achievements and self realisation, but Leila is weighed down by many factors and the new country is different than that she had imagined in many ways such as climate, life style and culture which are also discouraging for quite a number of immigrants arriving in England. Leila feels disillusioned and finds herself constantly yearning for her former home and expressing her wish to return there one day. Buchi Emecheta’s partly autobiographic novel depicts a success story in her desired destination, Caryl Phillips’s novel displays the grim reality of the coin’s other side where the immigrant experiences disillusionment, dissatisfaction in what the mother country provides.

中文翻译：

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目的地英格兰：Buchi Emecheta 的二等公民和 Cyl Phillips 的最后通道

尽管 Buchi Emecheta 的《二等公民》和 Caryl Phillips 的 The Final Passage 写成相隔十年，但它们显示出许多相似之处。两部小说都描绘了女主人公阿达和莱拉，她们在前英国殖民地尼日利亚和圣基茨出生和长大，她们发现自己受益于英国殖民教育体系。两位女主人公最终都与不合格、成就低下、不负责任的丈夫发生了关系，并且在某种意义上被双重殖民。这两位女性人物的目的地是英国“祖国”，她们希望在那里实现梦想，过上殖民教育体系所宣扬的更好的生活。这两位也有孩子的女主角，确实到达了他们的地理目的地，并且在适应过程中都摆脱了他们不成功的婚姻束缚。从这一点开始，虽然两人都设法在他们的新家园生存，但相似之处似乎结束了。雄心勃勃的阿达在伦敦为自己和孩子们建立了新的生活，工作和学习并很好地适应了新的国家，而莱拉则勉强活了下来。对于 Adah 来说，伦敦确实成为了自由、成就和自我实现的土地，但 Leila 受到了许多因素的拖累，这个新国家在气候、生活方式和文化等许多方面都与她想象的不同，这也令人沮丧相当多的移民抵达英国。莱拉感到幻灭，并发现自己不断地向往她的故乡，并表达了她希望有一天能回到那里的愿望。Buchi Emecheta 的部分自传小说描绘了她理想目的地的成功故事，Cyl Phillips 的小说展示了硬币另一面的严峻现实，在那里移民经历了幻灭，对祖国提供的东西感到不满。