BBL 3211 NEW LITERATURES IN ENGLISH
THEME, TONE, IMAGES, PARAPHRASING
Wole Soyinka - Nigeria
TELEPHONE CONVERSATION
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-tierred
Omnibus squelching tar. It was real! Shamed
By ill-mannered silence, surrender
Pushed dumbfoundment 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 changed her accent
Hard on the mouthpiece. ‘WHATS 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 blonde. Friction, cause—
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?’
1. THE SPEAKER OF THE POEM: The speaker in the poem is a black man who might also be the writer himself. As we read through the poem, you could see his is an honest man despite being a desperate one. We see him telling the truth about his identity without being asked and the frank description of his colour. But we could also see that he tries to please or rather soothe the landlady’s prejudice by explaining that he’s actually quite fair skin at other parts of his body. And at the final line of the poem, we see his desperation, a plea to the landlady to see him for herself.
2. TONE: The speaker projects a calm and dignified image. His tone through out the poem suggests someone who is collected and patient. As you can see, his language and manners to the landlady is not faulty but polite. Despite being asked to describe his exact tone of skin colour, he too it all in a stride. Despite his exterior calmness, deep inside him he does feel the prejudice. He pauses long enough to come up with answers for the landlady. For example, when the landlady asked whether he is light or dark skin, he paused. And after the second time being asked, he then politely answered, ‘you mean – like plain or milk chocolate?’ Even when the landlady insisted on a better description of his skin colour, he remained calm and further explained. We could see the contrast between the language of the landlady and the speaker from the caps used in the questions from the landlady. Her questions practically ‘screams’ to you when you read compared to the speaker’s answers which are written in small letters.
3. IMAGES: From the poem we could see the speaker uses the object around him to paint the emotions running in him while talking to the landlady about the sensitive issue of his skin colour. When the landlady first asked him if he was very dark or light, he paused for quite a while. After the pause he describes to us ‘Button B. Button A. Stench of rancid breath of public hide-and-speak.’ It shows he was staring into the buttons of the telephone contemplating how to phrase his answers. And at the same time he probably took a deep breath to calm himself, hence the rancid stench of breath from the public phone. To him the stench was heightened because he felt he could smell the prejudice that were coming out from the phone through the landlady’s questions. After that he sees ‘Red booth. Red pillar-box. Red double-tiered omnibus squelching tar.’ The colour RED represents conflict in himself, and a dangerous topic that he must tread well if he wants to get a room to rent. And we see this red objects set against a background of tar. Tar is black, like his skin colour. And if you were to see the symbolic picture from these objects, he is actually describing about modernization. Even in a country that is well-advanced, prejudice still exists. People may be well living in the 21st century but old prejudice still lurks around.
4. THEME: We could see that the theme of this poem is about the prejudice of one’s skin colour. How difficult it is for one who is coloured to fit into a country/society well away from home and the treatment one is subjected to because of one’s skin colour. We could see it very clearly from the questions asked by the landlady. The words ‘DARK’, ‘VERY DARK’, ‘VERY LIGHT’ that are used in her questions tell us the main theme of this poem. It tells us that when one is not fair skin or white as the westerners, it is hard to fit in. One could be turned away from simple, basic opportunities such as renting a room just because one is not the right colour.
5. PARAPHRASE: The poem tells us about a black man’s quest in finding a room to rent. We see this man making a call to enquire about the availability of the room. At the beginning of the conversation we see that everything was just turning out fine. The room was available and an agreement was nearly struck, until the black man mentioned that he is not white but instead is quite black. That is when things began to get quite complicated. We see the landlady enquiring on his skin colour and the speaker trying his best to provide answers that would please the landlady. Despite being asked such sensitive questions, the speaker remains polite and clam. While the landlady seemed more agitated. On the exterior the speaker seemed collected but inside, he was in conflict with his emotions. He knows what is going on in the landlady’s mind even though it was just a telephone conversation. He tried to gloss over the fact that he is dark but the landlady was persistent in asking him more questions. In the end, all he could hear was the ‘click’ on the other side. The landlady has hung up the phone on him. Even though he pleaded to the landlady to see him for herself before judging him, the landlady ignored his request. From the poem we see a classic example of the coloured people’s struggle living in a prejudiced land. The bad and unfair treatment they are subjected to tell us that even in a modern society today one is still judged based on one’s skin colour.