Skip to main content

Poem Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka


 Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka


          In the summary of Telephone conversation by Wole Soyinka, the poet talks about two people on the phone and the story goes on to narrate how the African man is looking for a house and the land lady has proposed a considerable price for the same. The poem strikes a positive note as the man gets to know that his privacy won’t be hampered as the landlady doesn’t stay on the premises. The African man is happy to know that and just before he makes up his mind to consider the offer, he drops in to mention that he is black. On the other end of the line, there was nothing but silence which the African man takes it to be an impolite gesture of refusal.
 
 
 
 

      However, the silence is soon broken as the landlady starts to speak again asking him to explain exactly how dark he is. First, the man think that he might have misheard the question but when the landlady repeats, he understands that this is something very important for her to know before she allows him to rent her house. This is something that came out entirely devastating for the African man and for a moment he felt disgusted with the question and fancies himself to be a machine, like the phone and that he has been reduced to being a button on the phone. He could also smell the foul from her words and he sees “red’ everywhere all around.

     The idea of Telephone conversation is to depict how brutal it can be for a man who is subjected to racial discrimination. Thoughts of racism and pre-notions come blended with an element of irony that takes over the theme of “Telephone conversation”. The Afro-American man is reduced to shame by the sudden silence from the other side and he gets into a state of make belief where he sarcastically thinks that the lady broke her silence and gave him option to choose and define ‘how dark” he is. “Like chocolate, or dark or light?” Then, he goes on to answer that he is defined as “West African sepia” in his passport. The lady not knowing how dark it could be didn’t want to embarrass the man further by resorting to silence. So, she asks him to define what he means. The man replies, that it is almost similar to being a brunette but a dark brunette.

        All this while, the man has been holding on to codes of formality which breaks loose at the landlady’s insensitiveness. The African man now shouts out loud saying that he is black but he is not that black for anyone to be put to shame. He also says that the soles of his feet and the palms of his hand are all white but he is a fool that he sits on his rear which has turned black due to friction. He knows that the landlady will never be convinced with his black complexion and he senses that she might slam down the receiver on him. At such a crucial juncture, he makes a desperate and silly attempt to plead her to come and take a good look at him but couldn’t help the situation from getting worse. Finally, the landlady slams down the receiver on his face.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Poem: Were I To Choose by Gabriel Okara

Were I to Choose   “When Adam broke the stone             and red streams reged down to           gather in the womb,           an angel calmed the storm”, “And I, the breath mewed             in Cain, unbliniking gaze                 at the world without                              from the brink of an age”.             Gabriel is immersed in folk tradition and ballad influences of tradition and culture are found in his poem. His poems are regional as well as universal. His poems are sometimes lyrical and full of music.                     The poem ‘Were I to choose’ is reminiscent of yeast poem called “Adam’s Curse.” The poet has tried to compare Adam’s toiling in the soil with the Negros working in the soil. They broke the stone themselves which was their very foundation. The red streams are symbolized for the multilingual diversity that reaches the womb Africa.           Cain in this poem metaphorically represents the next generation. ‘I’ in Ok

Poem: The Mystic Drum by Gabriel Okara

The Mystic Drum:                     The Mystic Drum is Okara’s love lyric. The Mystic Drum evinces a tripartite ritual pattern of imitation from innocence through intimacy to experience. By comparison to the way of zone as manifested in the experience of Zen master, Chin Yuan Wei-Asian this pattern resolves itself into an emotional and epistemic logical journey from conventional knowledge through more intimate knowledge to learn of experience empowers the lover to understand that beneath the surface attractiveness of what we know very well may lie an abyss of the unknown and unknowable belching darkness.                   But experience teaches us at this stage of substantial knowledge not to expose ourselves to the dangers of being beholden to this unknown and unknowable reality by keeping our passions under strict control including the prudent decision to ‘pack’ the ‘Mystic Drum’ of our innocence and evanescence making sure that it does not ‘beat so lo

"The Golden Fortress "by Satyajit Ray:

The Golden Fortress as a detective novel or thriller:                                                                    'The Golden Fortress' by satyajit Ray was originally written in Bengali entitled “ sonar kella' and it has also been filmised with certained modifications. It includes the elements of suspense because the novelist enfolds events of the novel one by one and the narration creates curiosity in the minds of readers.It tells the story Mukul,a jestismar,remembering the story of his previous life .He talks about camels,battles,horses,elephants,forts,red sand,peacockes etc.He also talk about Golden fortress .The news of Mukul being a jestimar is printed in the newspaper and very soon neighbour boy of mukul is kidnapped mistakenly .Then Dr.Hajra,a parapsychologist,takes Mukul to Rajasthan to find out more about his previous life.Meanwhile ,the kidnappers leave the neighbour boy neelu near the school.Mukul's father worries about t