Re p u b lic o f the Ph ilip p in e s

CAVITE STATE UNIVERSITY

Ca vite City Ca m p us
Pu lo II, Da la h ic a n , C a vite C ity, Ph ilip p in e s

Name: Buhain, Janine Andrea, Jacobe

Section: BSE-3BE
BSEE38: Literary Criticism

CRITIQUE PAPER
TELEPHONE CONVERSATION BY WOLE SOYINKA

‘Telephone Conversation ‘, as the title suggests, is a conversation over the

telephone that uses different in-depth elements such as form and structure, literary
techniques such as diction, repetition, ambiguity, symbolism and poetic devices which
highlights colors black and white that leads to expose the presence of racial discrimination
in the society. "HOW DARK?" . . . I had not misheard . . . "ARE YOU LIGHT OR VERY
DARK?" Button B, Button A. Stench.” The landlady asks an indirect question to the black
man about the degree of darkness. This line plays an important role in the poem that
reveals oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that
privileges white people.

This poem can be categorized as a lyric poem because it contains short verse that
speaks on touching and powerful emotions. The form is in free verse which has a single
stanza, 37 lines in total, and does not included any rhyme scheme and meter, instead the
poem flows along like a conversation which has a dialogue including a black man and a
white woman. The two are having a telephonic conversation throughout the poem. The
poem consists of question-and-answer pattern in which the white landlady throws away
one question after another and the black man, who is determined for a place to stay,
patiently answers them all. Also, the important piece of the poem is written in the present
tense such as the line, “Facially, I am brunette, but, madam, you should see the rest of me.
Palm of my hand, soles of my feet Are a peroxide blond. Friction, caused-- Foolishly,
madam--by sitting down, has turned My bottom raven black--One moment, madam!"—
sensing”

Aside from that, the poem consists of lowercase and uppercase to manifest
inferiority and superiority, the African as the former, the white landlady as the former.
Furthermore, numerous line highlights are enjambed which means there are no
punctuation to stop the flow of reading. It’s all worth pointing that until line 4, all the lines
are enjambed. That gives the poem a kind of anxious speed, as though the speaker were
rushing through the preliminaries, trying to get straight to the most difficult and essential
point. Line 5 is then strongly end-stopped. In order to discuss in detail, these are lines 1 up
to 5, 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." This end-stop conveys certainty and self-assurance, especially after
all the enjambed lines that precede it.
 With regards to diction, there are regularly uses of repeated phrases and words.
These gives different repetition in the poem and they conform to varied poetic devices. For
example, in line 6, the speaker uses polyptoton: “Silence. Silenced transmission…” This
repetition isn’t necessary and it’s almost redundant. But by accommodating the
uncomfortable silence that follows the revelation that the speaker is “African,” the speaker
conveys a sense of discomfort while waiting for the landlady to respond. Similarly, in lines
13-14 the speaker describes a series of red things: Red booth. Red Pillar box. Red double-
tiered Omnibus squelching tar. In these lines, the speaker is describing the phone booth, a
mailbox next to it and a bus. The speaker gaze upon these things, focusing on bizarre
thoughts because he is shocked by the question of landlady. The repetition conveys this
sense of surprise and emphasizes the way the speaker strike onto minute details to try to
get back on reality again.

In a different context, the speaker turns to repetition to carry the insistence of the
landlady’s racism. The landlady’s question, “ARE YOU LIGHT OR VERY DARK?” which
first appears in lines 10-11 returns in line 18 and, partially, in line 27. It becomes a kind of
refrain for the poem. Further, it suggests how narrow, how diminishing, the landlady’s
concerns are: all she cares about is whether the speaker is “LIGHT OR VERY DARK” and
nothing else about the speaker matters. In this way, repetition accentuate dehumanizing
effects of racism.

Along with diction, there are various words that appear to have important part which
suggest something in the poem. First, in line 6, the word “transmission” which means the
sound carried on the telephone wires. In other words, the landlady becomes silent when
she hears that the speaker is African but the speaker learns a lot about her from that
silence. Second, in line 7, the word “pressurized” which means stressed. The landlady’s
“good-breeding” is in conflict with her prejudice against black people and thus that "good-
breeding" is under pressure. Third, from line 11, “Button B, Button A” which pertains to a
choice between two different options. The choice doesn’t allow for ambiguity and the
speaker has to choose between A and B. Fourth, in line 23, the word “spectroscopic” it
pertains to a device that allows one to measure the spectrum in a beam of light and all the
different colors that make it up. So, the speaker is saying that, as the landlady imagines
what the speaker could possibly mean, she comes up with a bunch of different colors. Fifth,
Peroxide Blond - Light blond hair, usually bleached rather than natural. The phrase is thus
associated with white femininity.

Aside from that, there are symbols used in the poem that add impact on the
underlying message behind the words. First, is the cigarette-holder wherein it appears in
line 9, “Cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was foully.” The speaker vividly describes the
landlady's voice by comparing it to a cigarette-holder, which acts as a symbol of wealth and
privilege. And the speaker stated that this cigarette-holder is “gold-rolled”: which can be
mean as gold-plated. Lastly, Raven Black, it can be seen in line 32, “My bottom raven
black--One moment, madam!"—sensing” It is evident that the speaker is very dark in color
which directly compared to a raven, a bird with black feathers.
 Furthermore, it can be observed that Soyinka used poetic devices to enhance the
meaning and to intensify the mood in the poem. Alliteration appears in the entire poem
which makes the poem more poetic. Alliteration plays a vital role with regards to racism. For
instance, the alliterative /s/ sound in line 15, “By ill-mannered silence, surrendered” In this
part, the speaker is reacting to landlady’s intruding question, “ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY
LIGHT?” The speaker unable to speak except to ask the landlady to clarify her question.
The /s/ sound connects all these things together: the speaker is ashamed because of this
“silence,” which the speaker understands as a kind of “surrender.” Here, alliteration
highlights the irritation that the speaker feels in response to the landlady’s racist question.
Aside from that, alliteration illuminates the harshness of landlady’s racism as in /k/ sound
appear in line 20, “Her assent was clinical, crushing in its light” It bears the cruelty in the
landlady’s voice because she knows that speaking about skin color upsets the speaker but
she still continues to speak without considering the feelings of the speaker.

Also, the title itself is considered as a metaphor that describes the disorienting
experience. It is a phone call between the landlady and a potential tenant resulting into an
intruding interrogation after the landlady insist on knowing how dark the speaker skin color
is. The speaker turns to metaphor to help describe the interaction. Later in lines 7-9 “Voice,
when it came, Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled, Cigarette-holder pipped.” In other words,
the landlady’s voice is not covered in lipstick but rather in gold-rolled or cigarette-holder
pipped. Thus, these things speak about wealth and privilege. By comparing the landlady’s
voice, to them, the speaker concludes that her voice is aristocratic.

Apart from alliteration and metaphor, Simile also implored in the poem. It is evident
in lines 10-11, “"HOW DARK?" . . . I had not misheard . . . "ARE YOU LIGHT OR VERY
DARK?" wherein the landlady intrusively asks the speaker about the degree of his skin
color. The speaker refuses to answer this question directly. Instead, the speaker uses
metaphor and simile to push back, offering answers intended to disorient the landlady and
challenge her reductive views on race. Even in line 19, “You mean—like plain or milk
chocolate?” The simile compares skin color to the colors of different kinds of chocolate. The
speaker is just rephrasing the landlady’s question here, but still resists using the landlady's
actual language. This already suggests a more sophisticated, nuanced view of race.

In conclusion, the author uses different literary techniques to convey the message
about racism. And also, it contains poetic devices to stimulate the mood throughout the
poem which makes it more interesting to read. The poem uses conversational pattern that
is very unpredictable. Because of that, the reader does not have any idea where the
conversation will go next. And then, to create suspense and surprise, the author uses
enjambments alongside short phrases like “Red booth. Red pillar box.” This rhythm mimics
the telephone conversation the poem describes, with all its short, curt exchanges and its
awkward pauses. Although the poem doesn’t use meter and rhyme pattern, its form still
does important work, capturing the speaker's feelings and the dynamics of the telephone
conversation itself. And it is a great strategy to use upper case sentences which highlights
important topic. Moreover, telephone conversation is indeed a good literary piece that talks
about race and racism. The structure, organization of the form, and styles contribute to the
holistic impact and meaning of the poem.
Reference:
Soyinka, Wole. (1934). Telephone Conversation. Retrieved from https://www.k-
state.edu/english/westmank/spring_00/SOYINKA.html