Ah Bah's Money Literature Essay
Ah Bah’s Money
Ah Bah is a surreptitious, pitiful and ingenious person.
Firstly, Ah Bah is portrayed as surreptitious through his secretive behaviour to hide his money away from his father ‘in a corner of the cupboard behind the stacks of old clothes, newspapers and calendars’. This shows how furtive Ah Bah is to conceal his money, as he always hides his money in inconspicuous places such as the cigarette tin in the hope that his father will not notice. Also, in a bid to prevent his father from obtaining his money, Ah Bah came out of a story whereby ‘a rough-looking Indian had pushed him to the ground and taken away his money’, so as to lead his father the wrong way of thought and to stop suspecting the fact that he is keeping some money with himself, thus showing the great lengths he took in order to safeguard his precious money. Ah Bah’s sneaky behaviour demonstrates how surreptitious he is, as he behaves in a way that shows he wants to keep his whereabouts of the money a secret and do not want it to be noticed.
Secondly, Ah Bah is portrayed as pitiful through his sad family background caused by his morally-corrupted parents. The sight of his money gave him a lot of pleasure, however, he had to hide them from his father who would spend all the precious money unnecessarily on bottles of beer. Whenever his father is sullen, he would become very aggressive and would ‘begin shouting at anyone who came near’. He even ‘threw an empty bottle at Ah Bah’s mother’, causing Ah Bah to feel very terrified of him. Worst of all, his mother, whom he had always trusted, turned out to have betrayed him as she had taken his money to gamble too. These shows the sad family background Ah Bah has whereby he has a violent father and a sly mother. He leads a very miserable life as he seldom receive care and concern from his parents. His father is always pursuing him for money, while his mother cheats on him on his money. Ah Bah’s stress over financial matters at such a young age
Ah Bah is a surreptitious, pitiful and ingenious person.
Firstly, Ah Bah is portrayed as surreptitious through his secretive behaviour to hide his money away from his father ‘in a corner of the cupboard behind the stacks of old clothes, newspapers and calendars’. This shows how furtive Ah Bah is to conceal his money, as he always hides his money in inconspicuous places such as the cigarette tin in the hope that his father will not notice. Also, in a bid to prevent his father from obtaining his money, Ah Bah came out of a story whereby ‘a rough-looking Indian had pushed him to the ground and taken away his money’, so as to lead his father the wrong way of thought and to stop suspecting the fact that he is keeping some money with himself, thus showing the great lengths he took in order to safeguard his precious money. Ah Bah’s sneaky behaviour demonstrates how surreptitious he is, as he behaves in a way that shows he wants to keep his whereabouts of the money a secret and do not want it to be noticed.
Secondly, Ah Bah is portrayed as pitiful through his sad family background caused by his morally-corrupted parents. The sight of his money gave him a lot of pleasure, however, he had to hide them from his father who would spend all the precious money unnecessarily on bottles of beer. Whenever his father is sullen, he would become very aggressive and would ‘begin shouting at anyone who came near’. He even ‘threw an empty bottle at Ah Bah’s mother’, causing Ah Bah to feel very terrified of him. Worst of all, his mother, whom he had always trusted, turned out to have betrayed him as she had taken his money to gamble too. These shows the sad family background Ah Bah has whereby he has a violent father and a sly mother. He leads a very miserable life as he seldom receive care and concern from his parents. His father is always pursuing him for money, while his mother cheats on him on his money. Ah Bah’s stress over financial matters at such a young age