Tanti At The Oval Analysis

Paul Keens-Douglas in his 1992 audio excerpt entitled “Tanti at the Oval”, presents through stirring humor the tale of Tanti Merle’s visit to a cricket match between Trinidad and the combined islands at the oval, in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Keens-Douglas vividly describes Tanti Merle’s actions from her preparation for the trip, to the match and, finally her behavior at the game. It can be gathered from the audio that there are critical underlying issues that represent the history of struggle entwined in what the speaker is portraying. The issues encountered revolve around features of Caribbean life and include the significance of cricket, gender relations and the dialectal language.
The main aspect of the audio is based on a cricket match; “Trinidad versus de islands, ah big match like dat,” from this

The one that is dominant is how controlling Tanti Merle is. The first instance where this is portrayed is: “first of all, we leave late. Ah tell Tanti Merle to get ready for ten o 'clock, match startin ' eleven….but Tanti Merle wouldn 't leave de house.” Here it is observed that even though Tanti Merle was given a time to be ready by, she took her own time making preparations which resulted in them being late for the game. Paul could have gone to the game without her but instead he waited. The second occurrence that revealed her authoritative power was where Keens-Douglas had to carry her basket filled with food. “An ' yu know who end up carryin ' de basket.....me! Ah man like me who does go in de Oval with me money in me side-pocket, ah petit-quart in me back pocket, An ' me two hand swingin ' free. But see me now, lookin ' like some kind ah market vendor.” From his expression it is obvious that he feels carrying the basket affects his “manly” image. Finally he allowed Tanti Merle to choose the taxi since she was refusing the ones he picked. “Every time ah stop one, Tanti say she not goin ' in… So ah tell she "choose yu