Summary:
The poem "The Telephone Conversation", written by the African poet Wole Soyinka, depicts a West African man's attempt to rent an apartment from a white landlady and the landlady's refusal to grant his request based on his skin color. Three instances -- the speaker's "self-confession" about his skin color, the description of the landlady, and the speaker's use of high diction in making the landlady appear foolish -- exemplify Soyinka's use of irony to depict the absurdity of racism and create comical effects.
The poet uses irony to depict the absurdity of racism and create comical effects in the poem.
In the beginning of the poem, the speaker starts his "self-confession" when he reveals his skin color to the lady. It is ironic that this is called a self-confession since the poet has done nothing wrong to confess his wrongdoing. It sounds like the speaker is genuinely apologetic and regretful, for he has committed a "sin" of being a dark West African, which is something he was born with and has no control over. Also, after listening to the silence the landlady has responded with, the speaker says "Caught I was, foully." Again, the expression connotes that something wrong has been done by the speaker and he is now being caught committing his crime. By making the speaker feeling guilty and sorry for his skin color, the poet illustrates the silly and illogical nature of racism by showing how ridiculous it really is for someone to apologize for his face. Also, it seems almost comical that anyone should be so submissive when he has actually committed no mistakes.
On the other hand, irony is used in the description of the landlady. The landlady is described with nothing but positive terms. The speaker mentions the landlady "swore she lived off premises", it presents the landlady as a neutral and sensible woman. Also, the speaker mentions her "good breeding", "lipstick-coated voice"; these qualities suggest the woman is a dignified and respectable woman.
In the expression of "long gold rolled cigarette holder pipped", the adjectives " long gold" even shows the woman is wealthy and sophisticated. Her seeming goodness is shown later on when the speaker says that she was "considerate" in rephrasing the question for the African man to answer. Her clinical response to the question includes only "light impersonality." It gives an impression that the speaker is grateful for the landlady's demeanor. Actually, the kind description of the woman teem with irony, and it helps emphasizes the knowledge that the landlady is a shallow and judgmental racist.
Throughtout the poem, another form of irony is created by the speaker's use of high diction, which shows he is intelligent and well-educated. Although the landlady refuses to rent the the apartment to the speaker because of his African heritage and the supposed savagery that accompanies it, the speaker is, in fact, a witty and civilized individual. Words like "pippled", " rancid", " spectroscopic" are not words that a savage African brute would have in his vocabulary. The speaker's intelligence is further illustrated through his use of sarcasm in response to the landlady's questions. Although he is polite and sincere, his speech includes subtle meanings. The fact that a black man can outwit and make a white woman seems foolish shows the irony in judging people based on their skin color.
This is the complete article, containing 472 words
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