Tanti at the Oval

“Tanti at the Oval” by Paul Keens-Douglas.

This audio is about a frustrated man who is relating his day to his wife as he had taken her aunt to a cricket match earlier in the day. His wife’s aunt, Tanti Merle is audacious, tenacious and unapologetic for her bold actions which created a turn of events that were unfavourable in the eyes of the narrator. The piece also highlights issues of Caribbean civilisation in its attempt to relate the story.

Firstly, Tanti Merle’s high class charade fails to execute at times of excitement. Tanti Merle’s behaviour as described earlier in the audio gives the impression that she behaves sophisticated, however when she faces situations of excitement or conflict, her façade drops to reveal the very inexorable Tanti Merle. In the audio, Tanti Merle is refuses to get into cars either because the people in the car look too ‘low class’ or the car looks as though it is not insured and this compliments Tanti Merle’s high class charade, as a woman with such pretensions would not want to associate herself with such persons to diminish her reputation. She asked for a red taxi to travel in which symbolises how Tanti Merle feels about herself, as the colour red is associated with strength, power and determination which would be fitting for someone of the upper class. The way she chose to stop the car however, can be seen from two angles. The first angle is the angle where is action is seen as one with power, as Tanti Merle portrays herself as posh and the second angle is where this action is seen as inferior behaviour as most sane persons would avoid doing this. This brings up the issue where some Caribbean women feel it necessary to portray a more sophisticated persona to attract more power or seem more civilised however their true identities fail to escape them and reveal themselves at unexpected moments causing shock to nearby persons as seen in this excerpt. The entire narration of the story tells of Tanti’s outbursts...