The Narrator of "My Polish Teachers Tie"

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How Does Dunmore Present Carla, the Narrator in My Polish Teachers Tie Carla, the narrator is presented in first person and as the main character of the story. She is portrayed as a decisive and strong willed person, who knows her own mind. However she is also shown as somebody who has lost part, or all of their identity, and wants to re-find it but isn’t managing. She is also probably not well educated, shown my various aspects of the story. The fact that she has a part-time job, paying “£3.89 per hour”, shows that she is not well qualified or educated to a high level. Furthermore, she shows no discontent at the job and does not appear to desire a better job. She seems fairly happy with what she does which is a contrast to people like Valerie Kenward who is always complaining, (Carla) “It’s not a bad job. I like the kids” (Valerie) “‘We ought to get our money back’ she said. But she still took one…” Cala uses colloquial forms of speaking, which reflects her low level of education. She sounds laid-back from the way she speaks: “I shovel chips on to the kids at dinner-time”, “I dish out tea and buns”. She involved with the life of the school, which shows she is perceptive. This also shows that she is warm-hearted, because she is “only” catering staff but knows how the school works and likes the children. This is shown by her descriptions of exactly what is happening and saying that this is the norm (to know something is normal you must have seen it before): “and as usual he had a pile of papers in front of him… I saw him thinking, trouble. The kids chucking chips again…” She is also shown as critical and seems to distance herself from the teachers, she shows hints of sarcasm directed at the teachers “Very keen on fairness, we are here…”. This could be because she feels that the teachers and the head look down on her, or don’t see her at all: “I am half polish/

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