The Cab Driver Who Ripped Me Off
In Cornelius Eady’s dramatic monologue the speaker is the cab driver that is telling his captive audience about his views and experiences with beggars. The piece is set in a relatively modern city in America. The speaker is a cab driver that once was a beggar himself and has contempt for them.
As the cab driver rants to his passenger, his actions and words reveal a significant amount about his character. His jargon is colloquial, uneducated, and vulgar which suggests his background and life revolve around street life. He takes his passenger the “round-a-bout” way, implying that he does not have any conscience issues with shortchanging someone and is therefore greedy. He uses strong language when speaking, showing the passion he has for the subject as well as the anger he harbors towards beggars. His consistent complaining shows his narrow-mindedness and bigotry on the subject. He is arrogant in that he believes he was exceptionally clever to escape poverty and despises all those beggars he deems too moronic and lazy to make anything of themselves.
His calloused outlook on life is ironic paired with his final remark that someone should do something about the problems and his disillusionment that he “don’t hold nothin’ against no one”.
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