Idiosyncrasies Of Life

Saturday, February 14, 2009

The Taximan's story

1.Irony in the Story

Throughout the story, the taxi man keeps lamenting on how the youth nowadays are behaving. He gives many examples, one of which concerns his daughter, Lay Choo. With this, the taxi man is trying to impress upon us that he does not like the teenagers nowadays and neither should we. BUT, towards the end of the story, he refers to the teenagers as a good source of money, and that they are a good thing. In the last sentence, he even goes to where the teenagers usually hang out to pick them up and earn money. I feel that this is the irony in the story.

2.The Themes raised in the story

There are many themes in the story but I feel strongly about one particular theme. That theme is "Money makes the world go round." It's like the irony in the story, with the taxi man looking to the teenagers for money. Other infamous examples are Taiwan's Chen Shui Bian and Thailand's Taksin. Money is not THAT important, so I feel that as human beings, we should not fall into the temptation of money.

3.How realistic is this story

This question has many contridicting points. Firstly, a NORMAL person would not tell anyone about his presonal life, let alone to a complete stranger you meet on your taxi. However, the story depicts the average Sinagporean-vulgar, money-minded and sometimes poorly educated.(no malice intended) So, I will sit on the fence for this question.

Q4. What do you think of the taximan? Do you feel sympathy for him?/Q6. What about the other characters in the story? Do you feel sympathy for them?

I actually feel sorry for the taxi man. Like any other parent, he only wants the best for his children, more so for Lay Choo, his brightest and smartest daughter. So, he is working extra hard to get her to university, but there she is, flirting with the European tourists when she is supposed to"stay back in school to study". I feel for the taxi man, as no parent wants their child to go astray.

5.Do you agree with his lamenting?
I agree with his lementing as teenagers nowadays are REALLY doing such acts. I feel that they should be concentrating on their studies as schools in Singapore are more and more competitive. They can also proper utilise their time by spending more time with their family and bond with them more.

1:31 AM By Eugene