The irony in the story is that the taxi driver's daughter was influenced and became a social escort as the taxi driver encouraged and approved of social escorts as he profited greatly from sending them to their destinations. However, when his daughter misplaced his trust in her and became a social escort herself, he was heartbroken, which is ironic as he supported social escorts in the first place.
Q2. What are the themes raised in the story?
The themes raised in the story are Past vs Present, Trust and Betrayal.
The taxi driver lamented about the difference in conduct between children now and in the past, reflecting the theme Past vs Present.
The themes Trust and Betrayal are raised when Lay Choo betrayed her father's trust in her and lied to him and became a social escort.
Q3. How realistic is the story?
The story is quite realistic as there have been a few cases of teenage social escorts in the newspapers.
Q4. What do you think of the taximan? Do you feel sympathy for him?
I think he is unethical as he cheats the social escorts of their money by running the meter and driving round and round while they and their customers are privately engaged. Furthermore, he also encourages the existence of social escorts as he earns a lot of money from them, though it is illegal. He is also quite talkative but experienced.
I do not feel much sympathy for him as he was wrong to approve of social escorts at first. Furthermore, he shows little remorse for supporting social escorts though his daughter became one and still tries to make a quick buck off them, as derived from the last sentence.
Q5. Do you agree with his lamenting?
I agree with him about teenagers nowadays going astray and against their parents' wishes. There have been many cases in the papers about unruly teenagers causing all sorts of trouble , like playing truant, smoking and abusing. This is a far cry from teenagers of the past who were meek and obeyed their parents' every whim for fear of being caned.
Q6. What about the other characters in the story? Do you feel sympathy for them?
I sympathize with Lay Choo if she moonlighted as a social escort just to help pay for her University education. If that is the case, she deserves sympathy. However, if she worked just because she wanted to buy branded items like handbags or clothes, she deserves her punishment.
Hi Dao Ming! Good job on this post here. You must have done your research for Qn.2! Do note that irony is not a theme - it is a literary device. It's great too that you consider multiple perspectives in your answer to Qn.6 Do keep up the good work and continue blogging insightfully!
ReplyDelete-Miss Lim