Introduction
The poem “Telephone conversation” is written by Nobel laureate winner professor Wole Soyinka. In this poem, the writer describes the conversation that ensued between him and a racist British landlady when he tried to rent her apartment. Poetry usually seeks to teach or reveal to us the beauties and ugliness of life and the world entirely. In the poem “telephone conversation”, the writer uses humour to deflate as well as to intensify the pain he endures as a result of racial prejudices. (Mahone, 152)
This poetic essay will analyze the entire poem and discuss the function or role of humour as a sympathetic tool in the poem “telephone conversation”. Furthermore, the writer’s ingenious sense of humour which enabled him to deflate the pain he experienced as an African in Britain will be constructively analyzed. Lastly, the uncivil attitude of judging people based on their color will also be discussed.
Humour as a sympathetic tool
“Telephone conversation” is about the writer’s experience with a racist landlady in Britain. The writer as an African wishes to rent an apartment which he finds comfortable to him. He describes the apartment’s price as reasonable but feels indifferent about its location. (Charles, 267) Been contented with the price and location of the property, the writer decides to call the landlady to discuss amenities, price and other issues relevant to the apartment. However, the writer is aware of the racial prejudices against Africans and decides to boldly face the issue and probably get it out of the way permanently. This prompts him to confess his race instead of explaining it. Africans were usually treated as if their race or color was a crime or their fault. The landlady proved this fact beyond reasonable doubt as she immediately reacted by been silent after listening to his confession. When she eventually spoke, she bluntly asked “HOW DARK?” (Wole, 344) The use of capital letters by the writer clearly shows the writers pain to her demeaning and cold attitude when she learnt he was African. Here, the writer uses humour as a sympathetic tool to console himself as he mockingly describes the landlady in the context of a civilized, wealthy and well bred woman with good morals and values. Although in reality, she lacked every sound moral attitude to qualify her as a well bred woman. Her voice after the awkward silence is described as lipstick coated, cigarette holder pipped and long gold rolled. (Charles, 285) This description fits a lady of substance in all ramifications but the landlady was by no means a woman with sound attitude judging by the way she enquired about his race. (Mahone, 143)
Dumbfounded by the landlady’s arrogant reply, the writer is silent and she pushes on about her inquiry by rephrasing her question and asking again. “ARE YOU LIGHT OR VERY DARK?” (Wole, 312) The writer again humorously uses sarcasm to express how he feels as he says, “Shamed by ill mannered silence”. (Wole, 354) At a first glance without comprehending the poem, a reader might believe the writer is shamed by his own silence as a result of his inability to answer the landlady’s question. However, this is only a way of mocking the landlady’s attitude. The writer’s true intent is to show the reader that the landlady was shameless from the way she kept pushing about the issue of race completely ignoring every other detail. The writer had no reason to be ashamed when it was very obvious that the landlady was the ill mannered of the two. (Charles, 123)
It is very glaring that the landlady has no sense of decency and she proves this as she continually pressed the writer to describe his skin color. The theme of the entire poem is to prove that, been a better person does not count on been African or British. The landlady who is of British origin tries to treat the writer who is of African roots as a lower being yet he outwits her. (Charles, 321) When the landlady again presses about the writer’s color, the writer decides to use higher vocabulary to describe himself. He told the landlady that he was “west African Sepia” (Wole, 376) knowing that the landlady was oblivious to such grammatical expression. This gets the British landlady confused as she had expected a simple black or white answer from him. But the writer instead of been the savage the landlady had expected him to be due to his race, he sarcastically continues to describe himself in a simple and sophisticated manner which leaves the landlady completely lost and dumbfounded. The writer’s answer and ability to confuse the landlady creates a humorous irony. The British landlady addressed the African caller as a lower being by bluntly asking him how dark he was. But the highly intelligent African writer not only proved her wrong by outwitting her but he also leaves a question on the mind of the readers. The ability of an African man to outwit a British woman and make her seem foolish using English language which is her native language, questions the irony of judging people based on their race or color. The writer describes his face as been brunette, his palm and sole of his feet as peroxide blond. His bottom he says is raven black from the friction of sitting down. At this point the landlady was completely lost and she hung up before he could describe the color of his ears. Wouldn’t you rather see for yourself? He asked the into the empty telephone line. (Wole, 213)
Conclusion
The poem “telephone conversation” serves as a deterrent to anybody who deliberately intends to ridicule other people simply for the sake of their skin color or race. Situations like this have the potential tendency to explode the conversation into a full verbal war. But the writer is highly intelligent and well cultured so, he resorts the use of humor to ridicule the supposedly superior British landlady and deflate his own pain. The theme of the whole poem focuses on the negativity in judging people based on race. If race was a criterion for intelligence, the British landlady would have outwitted the African caller who intended to rent her apartment. (Mahone, 405) “Telephone conversation”, is a short comic poem. This can be seen right from the first verse of the poem when the African caller humorously described the British landlady as having good breeding regardless of her single mindedness and awkward silence when she learnt he was African. The most significant aspect of the poem is the writer’s ability to use humour as a sympathetic tool to console himself from the pain he experienced as a result of his skin color. Furthermore, the writer is highly intelligent and shows this in the manner which he uses wit to reply the landlady. (Mahone, 397) At the end of the poem, any reader that understands the poem will see that the discrepancy about what really is and what appears to be is constructively dealt with. The writer concludes the poem with an appeal to the reader’s conscience and a plea to the landlady’s sense of decency by asking, “wouldn’t you rather see for yourself?” (Wole, 143)
Works Cited
Charles, Wayne. Works and biography of Nobel laureate winners: A critical analysis. Boston: Houghton, 2002. Print.
Mahone, Bradley. Myth, Literature, and the African World: The Writer in a Modern African State. New York: Blackwell, 2005. Print.
Wole, Soyinka. “Telephone conversation”: Reading and writing from literature. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 2001. Print.