Tante at Oval

THINK PIECE

The story teller Paul Keens- Douglas’ video “Tante at the Oval” seeks to get the attention of the public when he relates his experience at the Oval with his aunt.

There is no denial of the fact that the Caribbean is described as paradise. One can visit and enjoy the tropical climate, sinking their toes into the warm sand and sipping a beastly cold tropical fruit drink blended with the island’s best fruits hand-picked by the locals or simply chowing down on a wide array of food prepared by our locals. On the other hand, it would be remiss of me to ignore the fact that this was not always the case our history has been long and painful; there were several causes that denied and oppressed us.

Throughout Paul Keens-Douglas’ video entitled “Tanti at the Oval” the narrator truly expressed a piece of the Caribbean’s history. I strongly believe that cricket aided our fight for freedom against stereotypes, oppression and inequality. It proved that the West Indians can actually beat the white man at his own game. The video is mainly set at the Oval and being a Trinidadian I can surely tell you that that is the place to be during the cricket season. People come from all over the world just to witness the West Indies cricket team battle against another team.

It is a place where other Caribbean nationals can come and mingle with each other, sharing bits and pieces of their culture, despite our different accents and features. Paul discusses various themes throughout the video which includes humor and sarcasm that. He uses these themes to effectively capture the attention of his audience.

At the beginning of the video the narrator expresses his anger because Combined Islands won a cricket match over Trinidad. This first statement gives the viewer the ideal picture of how important cricket is to the narrator; it seems to have an emotional impact on him when Trinidad loses and even up to this day Caribbean nationals get very emotional over a cricket match....