Taxi Men Story Essay, Research Paper
The main character in the story is the taxi cab driver, he was a born Singaporean who s been residing there since birth and been a taxi cab driver for almost twenty year, he s one of your usual taxi cab driver that has many things to discuss. In the story he spoke things about Singapore from his time to present time, he said Singapore used to be simple and peaceful, not much crowded with cars and buses and many changes took place, but the main element that rises in the story is about prostitution which focuses on teenage prostitution, he has seen teenage girl doing this, he has become an instrument for the prostitutes to bring them to the place where they sell their body.
From time to time he learned how teenage girls fool their parents, telling lie to their parents using school activities as alibi, after school they go to cheap motels and change their clothes, then going to mall and coffee shop where they meet Europeans and foreigners, not knowing that in the end her daughter was one of them, and he has been a victim of prostitution, her daughter Lay Choo was a secondary character in the story, in the she was the daughter of the taximen, as described, she was the youngest in the story, and his favorite among his eight children because she was able to study in a University and a scholar, she was one of the school girls that turned to be a prostitute which made an irony in the story that leads to a conflict and commotion, that Lay Choo was beaten up by his father the taximen and was only allowed to go out with her mother.
In the story, it is the taxi men who is dominates the story, he is the main character and the one who narrates his story, his story is all about teenage prostitutes which later in the story, he learned that her daughter Lay Choo was one of them, at first he was very pleased on what he is earning, he prefer prostitutes as him customer because they are elegant and they don t ask for a change, he often wait at some hotels and bowling alley because that the place where they meet, foreigner pay good money for their fair, even foreigners, he charged them double in wee hours of the night, they are very elegant in paying their fair not like an ordinary customer who s even bargaining for the fare cost, the taximen is a culture oriented person, he carries with him the way he was breed by her parents, in the story he compares the generation he has been to the current generations of teenagers, he described the teenagers now a days as very trouble persons specially school boys and school girls, they seem to out grow them self, they spend money, smoking, wearing latest fashion and doing things that old people do, these are the taxman s reaction to the current generation, he does not tell that it s a social problem in Singapore, and not his problem either, but he is very aware of the things that are happening and things that school boys and school girls do, he is nearly confused of the things that happens around him while he drive the cab, he saw school girls walking hand by hand with foreigners, learned that school girls bring clothes in their school bags so that they could change their uniforms after school, they fool their parents telling that they have extra things to do at school which make their parents believe and permit them to go, he s confused of the fact that this things are happening, and he has no idea about it, he cannot be angry to a prostitutes or foreigner because they give him a living, he is more passive about the situation, he knows something is going on and he just let him sees it.
In the story, the taxi man is very pleased of what he is earning despite that he does not like what he sees and think of teen age boy s and girl s, he just know what s going on but never did he change a thing about it, until one day which made him confused and gave him a very big problem, when one day while he is driving, he saw a girl that looks like her daughter Lay Choo, she was with other school girls that are dressed up and very bold, he followed them as they entered a coffee shop where he used to pick a customer who s going for a good time, in the very next day that he saw the girl, he so sure that the girl was Lay Choo, so when he got to grab her, he slap her and drag her to his taxi, he was so angry that when he drove her home, he slapped her and almost kill her daughter, she was lucky that he was pulled back by his wife and his neighbor, he locked Lay Choo to a room for three day, and never let her out, he just told Lay Choo s teacher that his daughter is sick and asked the teacher to excuse her in class, that event made him feel ashamed and felt bad for her daughter.
After that event, he realized that this social problem that he knew and witnessed almost every day of his profession has grown and he never thought that he will be a victim where as he was earning from them, he never thought that Lay Choo who s very smart and intelligent was one of them, that Lay Choo was fooling them in saying that she has to return to the University to cope up with her math lesson, he realized that her daughter was so week that she was let her self be one of the girl that sells them self just for they vises and leisure s.
Although prostitution in Singapore is very rampant and need a long time to stop, but the taxi men was able to help lessen the prostitution problem when he took out his daughter from her wrong doing, by talking to her customer he was able to make them feel about what he felt when he learned that her daughter Lay Choo was one of them, the impact that that short conversation from the taxi men to his customer is a big factor because it made them aware of what happening, and upon learning to what the taxi men experience with her daughter, the customer might done what the taxi men did to his daughter, they might become strict to their daughters and prevent them to going with different girls which they don t know the background, or may be they will guard them with what they do and people they go with.
In the story, it was the time that the taxi men caught her daughter Lay Choo entering the coffee shop where the prostitutes are going is the turning point of the story or the climax, it assemble a sense of irony in the story because readers never thought that Lay Choo way one of the prostitutes, may be if never saw Lay Choo walking to the coffee shop, she may be continuing selling her body to the foreigners, but luckily the taxi men saw Lay Choo which made him very angry. The ending of the story was not that pleasing in the sense that the readers has no satisfaction knowing that the main element in the story was not sub due, the story ended when he finally drop his customer to the place where he was asked to go, and asked if he can wait for another 30 minutes so that he has a ready ride, but the taxi men hesitated, may be because he might drop by where prostitutes and foreigners meet, or may be he might rode around the coffee shop where Lay Choo usually go, he might do a little stocking, although the story ended in a simple manner, the author did not mentioned about the taxi men s daughter, she might have been disciplined by her father by locking her in her room, or she might be allowed to go out their house only when there s a permission from her father, there might be a little change took place in the taxi men,
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