"Telephone
Conversation"
Wole Soyinka
The price seemed reasonable, location
Indifferent. The landlady swore she lived
Off premises. Nothing remained
But self-confession. "Madam," I warned,
"I hate a wasted journey--I am African."
Silence. Silenced transmission of
Pressurized good-breeding. Voice, when it came,
Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled
Cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was foully.
"HOW DARK?" . . . I had not misheard . . .
"ARE YOU LIGHT
OR VERY DARK?" Button B, Button A.* Stench
Of rancid breath of public hide-and-speak.
Red booth. Red pillar box. Red double-tiered
Omnibus squelching tar. It was real! Shamed
By ill-mannered silence, surrender
Pushed dumbfounded to beg simplification.
Considerate she was, varying the emphasis--
"ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT?" Revelation came.
"You mean--like plain or milk chocolate?"
Her assent was clinical, crushing in its light
Impersonality. Rapidly, wave-length adjusted,
I chose. "West African sepia"--and as
afterthought,
"Down in my passport." Silence for spectroscopic
Flight of fancy, till truthfulness clanged her accent
Hard on the mouthpiece. "WHAT'S THAT?" conceding
"DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT IS." "Like brunette."
"THAT'S DARK, ISN'T IT?" "Not altogether.
Facially, I am brunette, but, madam, you should see
The rest of me. Palm of my hand, soles of my feet
Are a peroxide blond. Friction, caused--
Foolishly, madam--by sitting down, has turned
My bottom raven black--One moment, madam!"--sensing
Her receiver rearing on the thunderclap
About my ears--"Madam," I pleaded, "wouldn't
you rather
See for yourself?"
Wole Soyinka
Akinwande Oluwole Babtunde Soyinka was born on 13th
July 1934. And he was known as Wole Soyinka.
He is a playwright, novelist and poet from Nigerian. He was the winner of 1986 Nobel Prize in
Literature. After his studies in Nigeria
and Uk, he worked with Royal Court Theater in London. He involved in Nigerian politics with great
interest. He was arrested in 1967 by the
federal government and put in solitary cell for two years.
His first major play was “The Swamp Dwellers” (1958). “The Lion and the Jewel is a comedy attracted
many members of London Royal Court Theatre.
In 1957 he published “The immigrant” and “My Next Door Neighbour”. There were published in the Black Orpheus
magazine of Nigeria. He is the first
African laureate to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. His speech “This Past must Address Its
Present”, was dedicated to South African freedom-fighter Nelson Mandela. His
speech was an outspoken expression on apartheid and the political and racial
segregation by the nationalist South African government. In 1986, he awarded the Agip Prize for
Literature.
In April 2007, due to the fraud and violence he cancelled
the Nigerian presidential elections.
He is a supporter of freedom of worship but against to the
religions which promote religious violence.
He married three times and divorced two times. He has children of the three marriages. In 2014 his struggle with prostate cancer was
revealed.
Summary
of the poem
“Telephone Conversation” 1963 is a poem by the Nigerian
poet Wole Soyinka. He mocks racism. The poem narrates about a phone conversation
between the landlady and the speaker regarding renting an apartment. The speaker is black and African which makes
the landlady unpleasant and she demands
the speaker the color of his skin whether it is “dark or light” the speaker
mocks the landlady’s attitude and ignorance and says evaluating a person by
their skin and color kills their human quality.
Detail
analysis
Lines
1 – 5
The price seemed reasonable,
location
Indifferent.
The landlady swore she lived
Off premises.
Nothing remained
But self – confession.
“Madam,’ warned,
‘I hate a wasted journey – I am African.’
It is a telephone
conversation between a black man and a landlady. He is looking for a room for rent and finds a
room with a reasonable price in the advertisements. He calls the landlady to make progress in getting
the room. During their conversation he confesses that he is a black man so as
to know whether the room would be given to a black man. May be he or his community must have a bad
experiences in their day to day life.
Lines 6 – 11
‘Silence.
Silenced transmission of
Pressurized
good-breeding. Voice, when it came,
Lipstick coated,
long gold-rolled
Cigarette-holder
pipped. Caught I was foully.
"HOW
DARK?" . . . I had not misheard . . . "ARE YOU LIGHT
OR VERY
DARK?" Button B, Button A.* Stench
These lines in the poem are very significant and make a
turning point for the readers. The
landlady after hearing the confession of the black man is quite silent. She thinks and doesn’t show her dislike
immediately. Readers could understand the landlady must belong to white
community. They are supposed to be good
breeding, well-educated and decent. They
are not supposed to speak against the black people. But they show racial
prejudice towards the black people. By
her voice the black man could imagine her appearance as a lady with smoking
cigarette, and with a thick red lipstick. The landlady is quite aware of the situation
and she asks him indirectly without the word “Black” about his thickness of
color. She asks whether he is very dark
or light, this seems to the black man as a question with choices. Now he wonders if he should press button A or
B in the dial pad of the telephone. The
poet brings out the false character of the white society.
Lines 12 –
16
‘Of rancid
breath of public hide-and-speak.
Red booth.
Red pillar box. Red double-tiered
Omnibus
squelching tar. It was real! Shamed
By
ill-mannered silence, surrender
Pushed
dumbfounded to beg simplification’.
The black could understand and hears clearly the lady’s
question. He could feel the unclean
breath of the landlady. For he knows the
white people approach in the public and in the private. They could easy change their nature according
to the situation. The black man’s reaction is very sensitive. He is angry and he could feel his eyes turn
red and he sees all the pillars, a bus passing by the telephone booth in
red. He realizes that the landlady is
gentle and polite in asking such question. Any way the black man is hurt and
feels that the question is a discriminative.
He sees this as a double decker omnibus squelching the black tar.
Lines 17 –
24
Considerate
she was, varying the emphasis--
"ARE
YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT?" Revelation came.
"You
mean--like plain or milk chocolate?"
Her assent
was clinical, crushing in its light
Impersonality.
Rapidly, wave-length adjusted,
I chose.
"West African sepia"--and as afterthought,
"Down
in my passport." Silence for spectroscopic
Flight of fancy,
till truthfulness clanged her accent
These lines bring out the description of the black man. He is says he is from West Africa. He is says he is black indirectly as he
doesn’t like to say the word ‘Black’. The readers could feel that the black man is
quite hesitant to reveal his identity.
He uses the terms in the passport to support himself. They must have faced many emotional
discriminations.
Lines 25 –
30
Hard on the
mouthpiece. "WHAT'S THAT?" conceding
"DON'T
KNOW WHAT THAT IS." "Like brunette."
"THAT'S
DARK, ISN'T IT?" "Not altogether.
Facially, I
am brunette, but, madam, you should see
The rest of
me. Palm of my hand, soles of my feet
Are a
peroxide blond. Friction, caused—
These lines of the poem brings out the different shades
of black could be there. The black man
says that he is not too dark and the landlady again expresses her doubt whether
he is brunet. The black man is not ready
to give up so he explains that his palms and the soles of his feet are not
black. The landlady is not satisfied and
ready to listen to him. So the black man
says his skin color of his back is too dark due to sitting for a long
hours. He is ready to explain in detail
the reason for his color as he is so desperate to get a room for rent. He is ready to apologies to the white lady
for being dark and he is forced to accept the shame which is thrown upon him
due to his helplessness.
Lines 21 to 35
"Foolishly,
madam--by sitting down, has turned
My bottom
raven black--One moment, madam!"--sensing
Her receiver
rearing on the thunderclap
About my
ears--"Madam," I pleaded, "wouldn't you rather
See for
yourself?"
The final part of the poem describes the black man’s helpless
situation and the landlady’s attitude. After hearing the truth from the black
man that he is a black man the landlady is very unhappy and she hangs the phone
showing her dislike to proceed further. She is not ready give the room to that
black man. Even then the black man tries
to convince the landlady about his skin color which is not too dark to
hate. He requests the lady to see him in
person so she could take a positive decision.
But she has taken the decision not to deal with him as he is black.
Literary
devices in the poem
Racism
The central theme of the poem is racism. The speaker makes fun of the white landlady
who refuses to rent the room the black man. The theme goes to its worst when
she asks the degree of shades of his color. The speaker says judging a person
by their skin color is a shame to humanity.
It is a disgrace to the white community.
The conversation becomes worse to worst when the land lady asks the tone
of his darkness. The speaker wants to
bring out the narrow minded approach of the community. They give a taboo and tag the black people to
it. There is no escape from their silent
ill treatment. The landlady gives importance not to the black man’s position
and profession and his living condition but to his skin color. It is a very
shameful attitude from her side. In the
concluding part the landlady hangs up the receiver and proves still they hold
the dominating
power over the black community.
Imagery
The poet brings out
the image of the lady with thick lipstick and gold rolled cigarette. The black man imagines the lady with lipstick
holding a cigarette and she represents the white society rich society. The next image is the huge bus squelching the
black tar. It is symbol of how the white
community treats the black community.
Irony
When the black man confesses his skin color and he feels
ashamed and sorry for being dark is very sad evident the poet brings out the
ironical situation how the racism makes a person to degrade himself. He himself deviate from the society. It is not his mistake to be dark in color.
By asking rude questions the lady proves that she belong to
upper class but we see her as a narrow minded racist. The whole conversation
proves an important irony that the black man who is supposed to be low proves
his manners, are better than that of the white landlady verbally.
The poet deals the serious subject in an easy manner with a
sense of hilarious touch.
Satire
Satire is another skillful technique to present the theme of
the poem in a powerful way. The poem is
the expression of the poet’s anger and humility. The description of the
landlady appears to bring out her wealthy social class but soon her
conversation with the black man proves her narrow attitude towards another
human being in the name of racism. The
poet conveys a strong message to the society with a simple conversation between
a black man and a white woman. Every
word of the poem represents the serious and shameful issue of the black
community.
It’s a free verse poem.
The conversation starts with a simple enquiry but ends with a serious
replies. The run on lines gives readers
a sense of complete formation and it suits the whole poem. The concluding part of the poem is used in a
different way. The black man asks the
landlady to see his whole body “his bottom is raven black”. The landlady could not understand the meaning
of his statement. But she controls herself and tries to be polite with her
conversation, and hangs up as she lost her temper.
Thus the poet says that people should not be judged by their
appearances. Every human deserves to be respected not to be humiliated.
thank you
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