Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka. Soyinka’s Telephone Conversation depicts a conversation between a white lady and an African American man which casts a harsh light on the racism and prejudice which grips society. The title reveals the fact that two people are talking on the phone‚ so the beginning of the poem is on a positive note: The man is searching for a house and the land lady has named a considerable price‚ and the area where it is located is an impartial and not racially prejudiced
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“Telephone Conversation” “Madam‚ I warned‚/ I hate a wasted journey- I am African” (4-5). This gives the reader instantly the subtle wit that is being portrayed due to the ignorance of having to be apologetic for something the writer cannot control. Wole Soyinka’s poem “Telephone Conversation” gives us a prime example of the aggressive humor and irony of the racial profiling handed out to the negro community where one’s education and merit does not trump racism in the view of the wealthy white
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A Hard Place To Be In In Wole Soyinka’s Telephone Conversation‚ the poet communicates his anger and disappointment about being discriminated in society by white people‚ only because he is African. He portrays this in a telephone conversation between himself and a potential landlord. The poem is put together as if Wole Soyinka’s thoughts of being discriminated against just flew out on the paper on which he was writing. The reaction of both the caller and the landlord are Soyinka’s own stereotypes
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Telephone Conversation‚ by Wole Soyinka is about racism; more specifically‚ it is about the way people both white and black fail to communicate clearly about matters of race. The narrator of the poem describes a telephone conversation in which he reaches a deal with a landlady to rent an apartment. He feels that he must let her know that he is black: Nothing remained But self-confession. "Madam‚" I warned‚"I hate a wasted journey—I am African." This is where the lapses in communication begin.
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The Nigerian poet Wole Soyinka uses the poem the telephone conversation to express the apathy one‚ particularly the black has‚ against Apartheid. Through an ironical dialogue over the telephone the poet criticizes the strong feeling of hatred that has arisen due to racial discrimination. The poem starts on a mild note where the poet negotiates the renting of an apartment with the landlady over the telephone. They were agreeable on the ‘price’ the ‘location’ and privacy. The price was ‘reasonable’
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How is Prejudice Explored in the Poems ’Still I Rise’ and ’Telephone Conversation’? ’Telephone Conversation’ by Wole Soyinka and ’Still I Rise’ by Maya Angelou tackle the social injustice of discrimination. Both poems lack in similarities‚ the only one being theme‚ yet possess an abundance of differences. Although both poems convey the same theme‚ they differ in their means of conveyance. For instance they both explore prejudice and discrimination but through different types of language‚ imagery
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The Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka The Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka (born 1935) was one of the few African writers to denounce the slogan of Negritude as a tool of autocracy. He also was the first black African to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Wole Soyinka was born July 13‚ 1934 in Abeokuta a village on the banks of the River Ogun in the western area of Nigeria. His mother was a Christian convert so devout that he nicknamed her "Wild Christian" and he father was the scholarly
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Telephone conversation by Wole Soyinka is about‚ as the title suggests‚ a conversation over the telephone between two people – a West African man and a British landlady. The former was looking for a place to live in London. He felt that the ‘price seemed reasonable’ and the ‘location indifferent’ in the sense that it was impartial. The landlady claimed that she ‘lived off premises’ possibly indicating that it was a source of income for her. The poem is in free verse and appears like a conversation
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antagonist. The main difference between the two people in the poem is that their race separates them. Soyinka explores this is more detail as the caller has to confess to being African American‚ as if he has done something wrong. From what started as a telephone call about the possibility of renting an apartment‚ now focuses on the callers race and Instead of discussing price‚ location‚ amenities‚ and other information significant to the apartment‚ they discussed the speaker’s skin color. There are many
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Analysis: Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka. Set in the 1960s‚ written in the first person narrative manner‚ the poem “Telephone Conversation” by Wole Soyinka is a poetic satire against the widespread racism in the modern Western society. As a student from Nigeria‚ the poet had encountered firsthand such parochial attitude‚ and had learnt to take it in his stride‚ the poem is thus influenced by his personal experience. The poem is about a telephone conversation in England between the poet‚
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