Chloe Hopwood My Polish Teacher’s Tie During Carla’s voyage of discovery, she begins to lean a lot of things about herself which she had never come to realise were her main characteristics which together, all created the self conscious woman she is. Ashamed of her career, Carla is portrayed to under estimate what she is capable of. This assumption is created from the extrinsic feedback others give her and the way they fluctuate their personas. ‘Oh, er- Mrs, er- Carter’ Showing very little knowledge of his staff, the head teacher is illustrated to be an arrogant, audacious, aloof of a creature.

With minute understanding of who this hesitant lady is, this shows just how little he cares and that he wouldn’t ever go out of his way to learn more about his staff and where they come from. Evidently he doesn’t even know Carla’s name, never mind her previous nationality. Hiding behind her facade, Carla is truly an ashamed woman who is embarrassed to tell her pen pal what her career really is all about. As a reader, I feel sympathy towards Carla as the writer has shown her feelings to be very emotional and hidden which is a way no one deserves to feel. As a mother, Carla has to make herself feel more confident by doing things to others.

For example, Carla wanted to ‘Let him think I’d written once and then not bothered. ’ I feel this implies that Carla wants Steve to feel she isn’t interested; giving herself a confidence boost as this will make Carla believe that he is thriving for her to reply, also meaning that someone does actually want to talk to her. Writing to Steve has meant that he would become close to Carla because of who she is as a person, not because of her profession. Due to her lack of confidence, she believes that she’d ‘Never had letters like that before, and I was never going to again, not after Steve knew who I really was. However, her polish pen pal did actually like her for who she was, and towards the end as Carla ‘was singing, stumbling after him all the way to the end of the verse’ the writer showed Steve to still like her even if she was wearing her uniform, a blue overall and a white cap with the school logo on it; doing her ? 3. 89 an hour catering job. As sycophantic Valerie Kenward, who is a teacher at the school, is seen to put on a persona of her being an outgoing, strong character yet this could all just so she is able to cover up her insecurity.

By doing this, it would make her feel like more people like her as she is a powerful woman however, too much of it can seem to be arrogant and snobby yet none of them really know what Valerie is about, as well as Carla. ‘If ever anyone brought up their kids to be pleased with themselves, it’s Valerie Kenward. ’ Carla feels that as a mother, your kids reflect off the way you act. With Valerie being a boisterous, confident figure, this could be passed on to her kids-bringing them up as proud and modest beings.

Poetry. Being such a lover, Stefan Jeziorny (Carla’s pen pal), devotes himself towards his poetry; making it his first, and main topic of conversation. Pleasant. Steve comes across to be a polite, educated man of which feels close to Carla, because of who she is as a person. With a face much too open, too alive-almost as if a child Jade’s age, Carla’s daughter, had got into an adult’s body, Steve still continued to smile even though he was in a foreign area and couldn’t understand the majority of what was going on.

This implies that he is a willing character with a very open personality. Conversely, hiding behind his smile, Steve could also be an insecure person who is trying to make himself come across to be an outgoing, fearless man of many poems. This could also make him even more similar to Carla and Valerie as these characters in this story all come across to be the opposite to what they really are behind their skin.