IN THE first two pages of the story, the taximan keeps on complaining about the misconduct and attitude of the young people who hang out with foreigners at night clubs, especially by giving a personal example of his daughter and thereby making the reader feel his strong dislike for them. However, at the end of the third page and the last page, he showed his liking for them, as he said that the people who refuse to go by the meter and wait for even 10-cents made him mad in comparison to the young people who did not even wait for change and made love in the taxi without knowing that he had drove round and round, wasting their time to earn more money through the meter charge. The irony is the sudden change of his attitude towards the young people from strong dislike through his oral presentation, to a liking for them compared to "thrifty" people.
The main and most important theme in the story is the hypocrisy of human nature, which is clearly reflected from the taximan's attitude. Although he clearly did not like the young people to hang out at clubs, he likes them in a sense that they give him more money than "typical Singaporeans". The second last line of the text states him as saying, "Must go off to Hotel Elroy - there plenty of young people to pick up " shows a hypocrisy of him constantly complaining to his passenger how disgusted he is at how rebellious these people are, but yet he still goes to the places that they frequent to pick them up to earn their money. Such is shown of a hypocrisy of human nature for the greed of money.
I think this story is partially true, because an ordinary person would not easily tap on sensitive topics such as his own private life, like how his father beats him with a cane and how his daughter has been rebellious and lied to him about having coaching in Maths, which may be exaggerated parts to make his opinion of the rebellious young people more sound, to a total stranger. He may also be just trying to make the passenger's journey more interesting by cooking up a make-belief story. However, his story about young people hanging out in clubs and "making love in his taxi" should be true because such things do happen in Singapore.
Apart from his grammatical errors, I think the taximan is a very good speaker, with his ability to engage the "audience" in the conversation. If the story is true, the taximan has my full sympathy because he has encountered cases of rebellious young people lying to parents and clubbing all day daily via his work as a taximan and a father, and I am sure he strongly dislikes such attitudes and behaviours, and certainly does not want his children to behave and act in such inappropriate manners. Unfortunately, his smartest and supposedly most obedient child, whom he has expectations to do him proud as a father, has also lied to him about having coaching in Maths and had gone out hanging around in the streets after school with what he thinks are "bad influences" for her.
I do not really agree with the taximan, apart from his laments about his daughter being rebellious and lying to him. Most of the time, he is lamenting about the growing trend of young people in Singapore being rebellious and going clubbing, which he thinks is an inappropriate behaviour. I think that this trend is just part-and-parcel of growing up, as teens will be curious about how clubbing is like, and even if they are "addicted", it is just really not his business. Instead, he should feel happy that these wasteful people give him extra income and not lament.
I do sympathise with the taximan's daughter. Although she might have been hanging out with her friends and doing some "inappropriate acts", I do not think she deserved the slapping and beating from her father. I think counselling would have been a better solution for her.
No comments:
Post a Comment