QUESTION ANSWERS

Question 1. State the central issue in the poem.

Answer 1. “Telephone Conversation” is a piece of satirical poetry that revolves around

the theme of racial discrimination. A black person requires a room on rent. He calls the
landlady about a room advertised to be available for rent. The white landlady is publicly
against racism, but ironically, once she learns that the person asking for the room is
black, she tries to know if he is partially black. The man replies that his palms and soles
are white, which confuses the lady, and she hangs up the phone.

The central idea is based on the prevalence of racial discrimination among black
people, who have suffered for years. Instead of discussing important information such
as rent and why the person needs a house to live in, the landlady is more concerned
about the colour of that person’s skin. It highlights the ignorance of a general racist
attitude towards black people and how disappointed the black man is because he has
been rejected by many landowners for an apartment to rent since he is black.

Therefore, the poem expresses people’s negative and discriminatory behaviour towards
black people and the helplessness black people face after racial persecution.

Question 2. There are intervals of silence in the interaction between the landlady and
the prospective tenant. What are the reasons for this?

Answer 2: The speaker tells the white landlady that he is a black man. She becomes
silent after this and then asks absurdly about the degree of blackness. The situation
reveals the hypocritical nature of people who have racially prejudiced minds. The white
landlady wants to appear decent and supportive towards the black person, but
unfortunately, she harbours feelings of bias against the race of black people. However,
the speaker counters the situation by confusing her about the colour of his skin. The
white landlady is perplexed and feels inferior to the intellect of the black person. The
entire poem satirises the hypocritical nature of the white landlady towards the black
tenant looking for a room to rent.

Question 3. How is colour highlighted in the poem and why? List all the words in the
poem that suggest colour.

Answer: Color has a significant symbolic meaning throughout the poem. Firstly, it
emphasises the differences in the skin colour of the landlady and the prospective
tenant, and how these differences have extended beyond just skin colour. Skin colour
has taken over people’s minds and made them ignorant of the plight of people of colour,
giving rise to racial discrimination in society.
The poem uses many colours, such as black, white, red, brunette, milk chocolate, gold,
and brown. Some of the colours have been used to give meaning to many situations in
the poem. For instance, the colour red describes the bus, the pillar box, and the
telephone booth. It also signifies the poet’s colour, black, unlike the white landlady. The
phrase “gold-rolled” describes the privileged class of people who are “fair-skinned.”

Question 4. Which are the lines in the poem that impressed you the most and why?

Answer 4: The phrase “West African sepia” was highly impressive and interesting. The
phrase was a reply to indirect interrogation by the white landlady about the colour of the
skin of the prospective tenant. The man did not want to describe himself by using the
word “black”. Therefore, he indirectly told the landlady that he was black by
emphasising that he was West African.

The phrase impressed me because it creates an atmosphere of humour and

disappointment. The phrase is subtly humorous as it mocks the intellectual superiority of
prejudiced people. However, the words also signify the inferiority complex that develops
among people due to constant exposure to discrimination. The black man chose to hide
his identity to get a room on rent.

Question 5. You know what ‘hide-and-seek’ is? What would ‘hide-and-speak’ mean?

Answer 5. The words “hide” and “speak” are used in the poem to signify the inferiority
complex black people have developed due to continuous racial discrimination. Black
people faced discrimination by fair-skinned people considered more civilised, educated,
and intellectual.

Question 6. What happens at the end of the telephone conversation?

Answer 6. The entire time, the landlady tries to confirm the race of the black person.
When she finally knows about it, she decides to end the conversation. The black man
tells the landlady that some of his parts are not black, although he belongs to the
African race. However, the lady’s mind is clouded with prejudiced ideas about black
people, so she refuses to listen to anything else in the telephone conversation. The man
could not convince her to meet him and rent a room for him.

Question 7. Certain words in the poem are in capital letters—why?

Answer 7: There are a few words that have been put in capital letters. The white
landlady spoke the words on the phone when she indirectly tried to inquire about the
black man’s skin colour. The words have been capitalised to emphasise the prejudiced
mind of the white landlady. She doesn’t directly put the question of skin colour in front of
the black man. However, she continued to ask questions about the degree of the colour,
whether it was light, dark, brown, etc.

It highlights the hypocritical nature of the white landlady. On the outside, she appeared
to be a decent person against racial discrimination, but on the inside, she held
judgmental notions and discriminatory attitudes towards people of the black race.
Instead of knowing about the tenant’s behaviour, intellect, and rent he could afford, she
was more concerned about the colour of his skin.

Question 8. Why do you think that the poet has chosen the title “Telephone
Conversation”? If you were to suggest another title for the poem, what would it be?

Answer 8: The title of the poem “Telephone Conversation” is apt as it portrays the
difference in the treatment of two people of different races. Many landowners have
rejected the black man’s request to rent out an apartment due to the discriminatory
mindset of the people. The white landlady continuously questions him to know the
colour of his skin. The entire conversation on the telephone denotes major societal evils
such as discrimination, prejudice, and racism.

Question 9. The power of poetry lies in suggestion and understatement. Discuss this
with reference to the poem.

Answer 9: The meaning of the word “understatement” is to present something in a less

manner than it is. If one judges another person’s intellect based on skin colour, it is
considered an understatement. The way the white landlady is reluctant to rent her
house to a black person and consistently asks questions about the colour of his skin
proves that she considers the race and colour of the person more influential than the
wisdom he possesses. Therefore, the landlady is ill-mannered, and ironically, the
insulting questions directed towards the black person are an insult to themselves.

Question 10. How is the landlady perceived by the man? Is the man’s perception of the
lady parallel with her behavior throughout the poem?

Answer: In Wole Soyinka's poem "Telephone Conversation", the first-person narrator

has enough bitter experience of rejection to forewarn the landlady that he is African,
giving her the chance to turn him down without a wasted journey. He is at least
suspicious that she may be racist but this is based on the behavior of others. Her first
question, however, takes him by surprise. How dark or light is he? This is a different
variety of prejudice. Rather than dividing people into black and white, the landlady has a
sliding scale of color. This exasperates the narrator, since it is no less racist than a
simple bifurcation, still discriminating based on skin color, and seems even less rational.
The narrator becomes increasingly irritated by the landlady's inquiries and the difficulty
of answering such a foolish question with any semblance of intelligence. He therefore
resorts to sarcasm, classifying his body parts according to color with the pointless
exactitude she demands. Although we hear very little from the landlady, her harping in
the same point justifies his mounting annoyance in finding a new variety of color
prejudice with which to cope.

Question 11. What is the speaker's confession, and how is it received by the landlady?

Answer: The speaker has found what he believes to be a decent place to stay. Though
the location is indifferent, the landlady lives away from the property and the price is
reasonable, so he decides to give her a call. All that's now left is for the speaker to be
honest and admit to the landlady that he's African. The suggestion is that racial
prejudice is rife and that white people in post-war Britain will often refuse to rent out
their properties to those they regard as racially inferior. When the speaker tells the
landlady that he's African, there's a long, pregnant silence over the phone. However,
instead of coming right out and refusing to have anything more to do with the speaker,
the landlady inquires as to the darkness of his skin. Eventually, the speaker describes
himself as "West African sepia" but the landlady doesn't know what means. After further
assistance from the speaker, who tells her that it's like brunette, she responds by saying
"That's dark, isn't it?" The implication is that the landlady doesn't want someone in her
property whose skin she considers to be too dark. The speaker suggests meeting up so
that the landlady can see his skin color for herself, but one gets the impression that she
won't accept his offer.

Question 12. How are the speaker's feeling conveyed to us throughout the poem? How
do we know he is stung by the landlady's insensitivity?

Answer. In "Telephone Conversation" by Wole Soyinka, as soon as the narrator hears

the landlady ask how dark his skin is, he starts taking stock of the objects around him: “
“ Button B. Button A. Stench Of rancid breath of public hide-and-speak. Red booth. Red
pillar-box. Red double-tiered Omnibus squelching tar. It was real!”

Although he is used to racism, this is a new variety of color prejudice in which,

apparently, the precise shade of his skin matters. The narrator is so incredulous that he
looks around him to ensure that he is still inhabiting the real world. When he is
sufficiently convinced by the solid objects around him, he bitterly describes himself as
shamed and his silence as "ill-mannered" before ironically calling the landlady
"Considerate" for laboring her point. When she has repeated her question, the narrator
employs devastating sarcasm. This is lost on the landlady, who agrees that she does
mean "like plain or milk chocolate." He goes on to dehumanize himself further by
describing himself like a paint color, then dissecting his body according to how dark
each part of it is. The reader clearly senses his chagrin, but the landlady is obviously not
the sort of person who understands satire. In the end, he can only give up and suggest
she see for herself, reversing their positions by sounding like a landlord unable to
describe a lodging precisely enough for a particularly fastidious potential tenant.

Questoion 13. What is the speaker's confession, and how is it received by the landlady?

Answer: The speaker has found what he believes to be a decent place to stay. Though
the location is indifferent, the landlady lives away from the property and the price is
reasonable, so he decides to give her a call. All that's now left is for the speaker to be
honest and admit to the landlady that he's African. The suggestion is that racial
prejudice is rife and that white people in post-war Britain will often refuse to rent out
their properties to those they regard as racially inferior. When the speaker tells the
landlady that he's African, there's a long, pregnant silence over the phone. However,
instead of coming right out and refusing to have anything more to do with the speaker,
the landlady inquires as to the darkness of his skin. Eventually, the speaker describes
himself as "West African sepia" but the landlady doesn't know what means. After further
assistance from the speaker, who tells her that it's like brunette, she responds by saying
"That's dark, isn't it?" The implication is that the landlady doesn't want someone in her
property whose skin she considers to be too dark. The speaker suggests meeting up so
that the landlady can see his skin color for herself, but one gets the impression that she
won't accept his offer

Question 14. Do you consider "Telephone Conversation" by Wole Soyinka as a fine

example of dramatic monologue?

Answer: The power of any dramatic monologue lies in the scale of the dramatic
moment upon which it is focused and the charisma, or uniqueness, of its speaker. In
Wole Soyinka's "Telephone Conversation," the drama of the poem centers upon the
moment at which the speaker's potential landlady asks him, in reference to the color of
his skin, "HOW DARK?"

"Telephone Conversation" was first published in 1963 when the civil rights movement in
America was campaigning vociferously for equal rights for black citizens. This moment
in the poem, when the landlady asks the speaker how dark his skin is, would have have
been particularly resonant at this time. For a modern reader, living in slightly more
enlightened times, this moment in the poem might be even more impactful. It seems
preposterous and outrageous that a landlady should ever ask such a question of a
potential tenant. *

Expressions and their corresponding meanings:

1. Rancid breath: rancid means something repugnant. The lady’s voice is vile
because it sounds unpleasant due to her prejudiced nature.
2. Squelching tar: Squelching means to suppress forcefully. Tar is a distilled liquid
from wood or coal. The phrase is used to describe the poet’s skin colour.
3. Spectroscopic flight of fancy: Spectroscopy describes the emission or dispersion
of light into seven colours. The phrase describes the range of thoughts in the
mind of the white landlady after talking to the poet. She gradually realises she
has less knowledge than the man on the other side of the phone.
4. rearing on the thunderclap – The unexpected and shocking occurrence of
thunder.
5. brunette – olive skin and dark brown hair
6. Peroxide blonde: Peroxide is a bleaching chemical. The phrase describes the
artificially bleached palms and soles of feet.
7. Clinical assent—The landlady’s voice sounded clinical, as if she was replying to
the poets after intense thoughts and inspection.
8. Raven black – The Raven is a very dark-colored [Link] phrase is used to
describe the skin colour of dark-skinned people.