The English Language Teacher's Secret By Catherine Lim

“ The English Language Teacher’s Secret” by Catherine Lim is a story focuses on Miss Ponniah who had been deeply in love once, during her twenties and still in the state of excitement towards her memorable love story between her and Dr. Chellam. Throughout the whole story, Catherine Lim employs various stylistics devices.
For the three paragraphs of the excerpt which I have chosen, the sentence structure is not complex but these sentences are long with segmented and the frequent usage of commas which marks a pause to the events happened. Most of the sentences in the excerpt are a trading of questions in which Miss Ponniah asks a total of three questions in her thought. “Is it true that Dr. C has been unfaithful to me?”, “Why didn't I marry …show more content…
The letter “F” is even capitalised to show the strictness of her father. Her father controlled all her action. The objection of her father created a profound conflict for her. She struggled against social institution that either explicitly or implicitly opposed the existence of their love. Since she was the only daughter, she had no choice to oppose but to follow her father’s order even though her father did not give her a good reason why he objected their relationship ever since the beginning. Perhaps one of the reasons that her father objected their relationship is because he wanted her to stay by his side and looked after him. Most of the parents do not know that their daughter is growing up. They dare not let them making their own mistakes because according to them they are not mature enough to fix those mistakes as …show more content…
C. The narrator wants to create the effect of doubtfulness by using repetition immediately. The repetition draws out significant elements of the relationship between Miss Ponniah and Dr. C where Miss Ponniah keeps thinking how they ultimately end up in either good or bad ending. For example, if she only thinks of her love, she will leave her father, and end up she might lose her father as he had always objected their relationship. If only she gives up her relationship with the guy, she will never meet the love of her life ever again because she has expected the guy as the forever life partner with all her heart and soul. She believes that it only happens once in a lifetime and it is a promise, a bond, and once given is never forgotten. She felt regret as she did not have the courage to stand up for their love therefore up until today at the age of forty six she is still single and unmarried. Consequently, she is leading a life of loneliness as her father had already passed away and she does not have a life partner in the