Category 1: Once Upon a Time – Gabriel Okara
This is the person the speaker addresses throughout the poem.
Who is his son?
This is the character who captures the son's attention during the school play.
Who is Cinderella's wicked sister?
This is the fruit left beside the road and eventually offered for free.
What are coconuts?
This sport is being played at Sabina Park.
What is cricket?
This Caribbean territory is featured prominently in the speaker's observations during his journey.
What is Puerto Rico?
According to the speaker, people once laughed with their hearts and did this with their eyes.
What is smiled with their hearts?
This is the character whom the son largely ignores despite her popularity and good reputation.
Who is Cinderella?
This is how long the coconuts remain without attracting buyers before the owner puts up the sign.
What are two days?
This is the country whose cricket team is involved in the match against the West Indies.
What is England?
This is the city where the aircraft makes its stopover.
What is San Juan?
This is what the speaker believes people have lost as they have grown older and become more socially conscious.
What is sincerity and genuine human connection?
This is what the mother finds amusing about her son's preference for the wicked sister.
What is his attraction to a character whose behaviour is deliberately spiteful and mischievous?
According to the speaker, this is what the owner should have done instead of leaving the coconuts outside the gate.
What is personally inviting his neighbours to collect them?
This is the speaker's initial attitude as he enters the cricket ground, influenced by his English identity and racial background.
What is confidence or a sense of superiority?
This group of passengers is instructed to remain on the aircraft while others are allowed to disembark.
Who are the passengers continuing their journey who are subjected to discriminatory treatment?
The speaker wants his son to teach him how to do this again, suggesting that he longs to regain his former innocence.
What is laugh genuinely?
The mother fears her son may be deceived by this quality when choosing a romantic partner in the future.
What is outward appearance or seeming attractiveness?
The speaker describes this as the disease that affects the owner's actions.
What is racial prejudice?
This causes the speaker to become increasingly uncomfortable as the match progresses.
What is the challenge to his assumptions and his inability to maintain his position among the spectators?
This social issue is highlighted through the unequal treatment of Caribbean passengers.
What is racial discrimination?
This is the central conflict explored in the poem as the speaker contrasts the behaviour of people in the past with their behaviour in the present.
What is the loss of authenticity and the development of social hypocrisy?
This is what the mother anticipates doing when her son eventually introduces her to a romantic partner she may not approve of.
What is pretending to be pleased while concealing her reservations?
This is the contradiction at the heart of the owner's supposed generosity.
What is that he gives away something while remaining unwilling to establish genuine human contact with those he considers different from himself?
Beyond cricket, this broader issue does the poem explore through the speaker's experience at Sabina Park.
What is the complexity of racial identity, cultural belonging, and colonial attitudes in the Caribbean?
This is the broader relationship between Caribbean identity, American influence, and unequal treatment that the poem encourages readers to examine.
What is the tension between colonial or external influence, racial inequality, and Caribbean identity?