The main theme of Iyer’s
essay was, at least to me, “the subversion of expectations”. There are several
pieces of evidence for this. For instance, Maung-Maung is a college graduate,
yet drives a taxi, a profession that requires almost no education. When Iyer received
the jade from his driver, he expected foul play of some sort, yet was only
given it to have a souvenir from his travel, to remember Mandalay and
Maung-Maung fondly. When Iyer is invited into Maung-Maung’s home, he expects to
be mugged, or something of the like. Furthermore, in his essay about himself,
Maung-Maung writes of a time in which his parents had no money to pay for
school, and against all odds, managed to put himself through college. Yet, his is
what we expect from the character we now know: the completion of his studies
and his own car for tours. In a way, though, isn’t ending a story with so many
subversions of expectations in an expected way a subversion in and of itself?
Two interesting uses
of language I found:
The way Maung-Maung
speaks and writes. The broken English really helps with the setting of the
story and makes the character seem more vividly foreign, as well as more real.
It also ties with one of the reasons he drives: to improve his English.
Maung-Maung’s list. It
breaks the format of the paragraphs that came prior to it, however briefly. The
message itself, though, is presented in an interesting fashion: Three of the
things are pretty standard rules for nice people: abstinence from violence, to
be helpful, and to be kind. Abstinence from intoxicating substances is also a
pretty common rule. The fact that he bothered to include abstaining from illicit
sex, though, speaks volumes for the society this man lives in, in which it
would be such a big concern that he adds it to his only five rules.
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