1. What causes the first episode of silence in the poem?

Why is the landlady's good-breeding

pressurized'?
A. Wole Soyinka won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1986, the first Black African to do so.
Telephone Conversation"" is a poem written by Wole Soyinka. The narrator of the poem and the
landlady are talking about letting out a house for the narrator.
The narrator said that the price or the rent of the house was reasonable. Similarly, the location too
was agreed upon by the narrator. The landlady told the narrator that she lived far away from the
premises that is being let out to the narrator. The narrator also made frank statement that he is an
African. The polite manners, xpected of a person from an upper-class family, is known as good-
breeding. voice or accent of a person, in England, is an indicator of a social strata. However, taste,
habits and dress are also takr 1 into consideration to decide whether a person has good-breeding.
The land-lady feels that she is pressurized by the African. This is the first episode.
2. In the second episode of silence, why is the speaker dumbfounded ? What forces him to
break the silence? What 'surrender' Has taken place?
A. The speaker is dumb-founded because he was speaking to someone, but on the other end, there
was again silence. The speaker was in a red-booth (telephone booth). The person speaking to was
silent. The narrator calls it ill-mannered silence. The repetition of the word 'red' is really a force to
break silence. The narrator re veats the words 'Red booth', red pillar box and the red double-tiered
omnibus squelching tar. Here. "Surrender" stands for the narrator's open talk that he is an African
very dark. The narrator is candid towards the land-lady.
-

03.The poet refers to the telephone booth as publie hide-and-speak. He mentions "self-
confession". Do these two phrases indicate a feeling ofshameor embarrassment?
A. The poet refers to the telejhone booth as Red booth because in England telephone booths are
painted red. Since these booths are always closed while speaking on phone, it is like a hiding
place. So, the poet, aptly refers to thetelephonebooth as "public hide and speak".
The narrator or the poet was lite a person hiding in the booth
Self-confession" here means open talk on onc end. Since the landlady was observing silence,
the narrator's talk is considered as self-confession. Both these phrases i.e., "public hide and speak"
and "self-confession" indicate a feeling of embarrassment to the narrator.
4. The writer describes his e ilour as "West African sepia'. This silences the lady. Why? Why
s the writer produce so many fanciful names for shades of colours, like 'milk chocolate
and 'peroxide blonde'?
A. The land-lady asked the narrator whether his colour was plain dark or like milk-chocolate. The
narrator says that the land-lad: was not much worried about his colour because he told her that he
was an African. When the nar rator said that in his passport his colour is written as "West Africa
sepia", the lady could not under stand it. The narrator explained to her that it was like brunette, that
is dark.
He tells the land-lady that the palm of his hand and the soles of his feet are peroxide blonde. The
the poem is all about the whites and blacks.
poet describes different colours decause
How are the speaker's feclings conveyed to us throughout the poem ? How do we
know
5.
that he is sung by the landlady's insensitivity?
in the poem, does not want the land-lady to
A. Though an African by birth, the
narrator
misunderstand him.
that he is an African who is proud of his colour and
The speaker in the poem conve:'s the feeling
that his bottom turned black like the colour of a
who is open minded. He even t lls his land-lady
raven (a kind of crow).
can understand that the speaker is a plain-hearted person
and is against
From the poem, we, readers
and A nswers 4 or 5 times each. These are Important : : : DASARADHI 898 50 50 786
Read these Questions