Tanti Merle at the Oval

“Tanti Merle at de Oval”

“Tanti Merle at de Oval,” a piece by Paul Keens-Douglas I would described as a truly realistic depiction of an authentic Caribbean persona. It represents the characteristics that portray the Caribbean identity which sets it apart from the rest of the world. Mr. Douglas, narrates going to a cricket match at the Queens Park Oval in Trinidad to witness the Combined Islands against Trinidad, with a colourful “Tanti Merle” on her birthday. He moans on about his experience with ‘tanti’ as she begins by stubbornly packing her own food which he has to carry in a basket, to almost starting a riot at the Oval due to end result of the match. In this piece, the author paints a vivid picture of the differences in gender and age relations, patriotism stemming from colonialization and the use of various semantic techniques.

The composer, throughout his anecdote, uses an array of linguistic attributes to enrich the quality of his piece. Repetitions, which was used continuously, provided the audience with an enhancement of his mood and emotions toward the situation as he stated he was “vex, vex, vex” and “never me again, never, never, never, never me again to carry a relative to the oval…” His tone throughout proved to be of sarcasm as it commonly used as a form of criticism and additional humor. Humor can be considered as his power in this excerpt to capture the attention and bring forth a sense of relatability to his Caribbean rooted audience. He also showcased the use of similes, for instance, “smelling like a snackette” and equipped his piece with onomatopoeias in his description of wickets being struck. In addition to these writing techniques used, Paul Keens-Douglas re-counted his experience in a Trinidadian dialect tongue, perhaps he did this to stay true to his Caribbean origin as he can be described as culturally diverse, having been born in Trinidad and Tobago, lived in Guyana in his childhood and studied at the University of the West...