Hello Everyone and Welcome to Beaming Notes. In this video, we are going to take a look at the Line by Line Poem Summary of Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka.
Voice-Over and Narration : Arka Chakraborty
SUMMARY:
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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.
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