Tanti at the Oval

Having listened to this piece I can definitely see the behavior and antics of Tanti Merle in our present day society. While Tanti Merle may have taken it to the extreme, she still can be seen as a representation of us as a people as evidenced by the things she does and refuses to do throughout the piece. Any man or son can testify to how our ladies of the Caribbean can be a handful .The writer has been on the receiving end of one of their outbursts when they are angry or in a “mood”. This can be seen when Tanti Merle nearly lost her husband.

One of the most prominent examples is the amount of time Tanti Merle takes to leave the house even though she is late. Trinidadians have a bad habit of reaching to their destinations in a most untimely manner much to the point that we have adopted a saying “moving by Trinidadian time”. The writer, being Trinidadian also has a habit of reaching late as he has only ever arrived to his secondary schooling institution punctually once.

One has noticed that Tanti Merle took a large volume of food with her. The writer can personally relate to this as his own grandmother does the exact same thing when they go out on excursions to the beach. There is usually a large number of bags, baskets etc., to accommodate this food. There is also the preference for home cooked foods. This is the exact opposite to the average Caribbean man who is quite content on just taking whatever he can fit into perhaps one bag. The writer rarely ever leaves the house with his hands full and so does every other man on the street.

Yet another mannerism is how quickly we as a Caribbean people are quick to “cuss” each other out. This can be seen quite commonly on our roads as each individual driver thinks he/she is the owner of the road, which often leads to outward displays of aggression which takes place in the form of a “cuss out”. This does not only take place on the roads. One has experienced a trip to the movies and witnessed patrons “cuss...