In this story by Catherine Lim, an English teacher frustrated by the lack of progress in one of his students misses vital clues that may indicate problems at home. He reads three compositions exhibiting poor grammar to a colleague. The first two, which describe her desire to become a nurse and help her family, express concerns about her father’s drinking and violent tendencies. In the third, which he misinterprets as being off topic, she describes her father as having become a cruel, violent “stranger” who continually beats her mother and herself. Themes include frustration, insensitivity, ambition, oppression, domestic violence, suicide.
The story was published in the late 1970s, a time when corporal punishment (and particularly caning) was widespread in Singapore. This may explain why neither the teacher nor the colleagues to whom he read the compositions seemed particularly concerned by what she wrote. Despite the poor grammar, the girl’s writing is readily understandable and, we are told, no worse than that of pre-university (Secondary 6) students. This raises an interesting question. Was the poor girl’s suicide a result of her father’s abuse, or the self-absorbed teacher’s heartless failing grade which would have prevented her fulfilling her dream of becoming a nurse.