Explore how people are presented in Telephone Conversation and Once

Upon a Time
Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka is a poem about a dark, West-African man
searching for a new apartment, and it tells the story of a telephone call he made to a
potential landlady. Instead of discussing the price, location or other relevant information,
however, they end up sicussing the speaker's skin color for the rest of the phone call.The
landlady is described as a polite, well-bred woman, but she does not appear to be so; For
example, when she hears the man's voice, instead of having a civilized conversation with
him, she rudely starts discussing his race and ethnicity with him, with a strong sense of
racist believes, ' "HOW DARK?"... I had not misheard...' The use of capital letters also
makes it clear that she says this empathetically and condescendingly. The direct speech of
both characters presents a contrast in their attitudes - the woman is direct to thepoint of
rudeness, whereas the man always responds politely to her uncivilized question and
remarks. The man also tries to make their conversation less interrogative and show his
sense of humor to get the lady to see him in a better light, as he says phrases such as
"West African sepia" and "You mean - like plain or milk chocolate?" After the lady asks
the man "How dark?" the poem pauses to let the reader process the fact that the ridiculous
question has actually been asked. A short description is also given to give a sense of a
pause - a description of the speaker's actions, the foul smell (maybe indicative of the rude
and 'foul' question which the woman had presented him with) and of a bus which drove
by, which is a motion that brings us back to the harsh reality. The speaker also knows that
she wants a measure of his overall skin color so she can label him as she likes, but he
refuses to give her this satisfaction. Instead, he details the different colors of the different
parts of his body (eg. 'face is brunette','hands and feet - peroxide blonde','bottom - raven
black') As it was meant to, this irritates the lady and she hangs up - leaving the chcolate
man telling the empty phone-line 'wouldn't you rather/ see for yourself'. The irony in this
question though, lies in the fact that the speaker is actually referring to his 'raven-black
bottom' when he asks the woman if she wants to see it herself... The speaker's intelligence
is quite obvious, as an uneducated savage wouldn't be able to use words such as 'pipped'
and 'rancid'; In addition, his intelligence is evident with his use of sarcasm and wit in
response to the landlady's questions, as mentioned previously. The fact that a black man
could outwit and make a 'well-bred' white woman seem foolish shows how prejudices the
judging of people based on their race can be. To conclude, throughout this poem, Soyinka
is able to show the reader how irrational it is to judge a person based solely on their race
or skin color.
Once Upon a Time by Gabriel Okara is a poem appealing to mainly young people as it
criticizes or expresses the disapproval of the hypocrisy of adults - lengthened in and
constrained by rules and conventions. It is also about adopting masks for different
occassions, such as lying, cheating, betraying, greeting your so-called-friends or
acquaintances, et cetera. Whereas, childhood is portrayed as a time of hinesty - honest
laughter, speech and spontaneity. 'These muting things' are the pressures and constraints,
social or racial, which make people behave falsely or hypocritically, so their true 'voice',
true feelings, are muted. Okara wants to rediscover childhood and become as honest,
carefree and nonchallant as a child. He wants to 'Laugh with his heart rather than smile
with his teeth'. The title of the poem suggests a fairy tale, something that is lost, perhaps
not real, and will never come again. It also suggests that what happens in fairy tales can

never happen in real life, which is a depressing thought, as so many people have to be
what our society like to call 'fake' in order to fit in and be able to lead a 'normal', and in a
way an 'idiosyncratic' life. It also seems as if Okara is telling a story to a child, teaching
him or her, however, as it is revealed later, he is the one who wants to learn from the
child, how to be a truthful, candor person once again. On the structure side, the poem is
loosely structured with occasional rhyme but no real pattern in line or stanza length. The
rhythm, however, is distinctive, marked by frequent repetition of key words or phrases. In
addition, Okara uses compound words (homeface, officeface, hostface) to show that he
no longer has only one face, as it is hidden under all these masks which he calls faces.
Also, similes are used (such as 'for my laugh in the mirror/ shows only my teeth like a
snake's bare fangs!'). This makes us understand the severity of his disdain, as he no
longer even lkes seeing his own reflection, never mind going through the day having to
wear masks to not seem rude and to conform to the modern social standards; Anything
else would be intolerable. This poem makes us realize the truth about our harsh reality you either conform to the social standards and follow the crowd, or you will be seen as an
ignominy to the society.
I, frankly, enjoyed the poem Once Upon a TIme by Gabriel Okara much more than
Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka, firstly, as I am tired of seeing so many antiracism poems and content in general, as I believe it is no longer such a big issue and that
it is time for this 'racial-equality' trend to come to an end. I am in no way against any
particular race - my point is that there is a redundant amount of this content when the
problem discussed is not even a problem anymore! In addition, I also highly enjoy poems
about the harsh reality, which I strongly believe the poem 'Once Upon a Time' is actually
about. Even though in the end of the poem the man asks his son to teach him how to be
'like a child' once again, he knows that it is impossible and that he could never go back to
that time again. Evidence for my opinion is that the poem's name is 'Once Upon a Time',
a fairy tale opening, so whatever is written beyonf this phrase is merely a 'dream', if you
will, or an unlikely wish. The words 'when I was like you' show us that Okara
acjnowledges that he is no longer a child, and even though he'd like to possess his young
son's qualities, it is no longer possible as he is no longer a child.
To conclude, both poems have an antagonist: in 'Telephone Call', the antagonist is the
racist landlady, whereas in 'Once Upon a Time', the antagonist is the speaker himself...
Okara shows his son, and children in general, as if they are superior beings; Children,
however, will not stay innocent and honest forever - they will eventually grow uo and
become adults, also wearing their own masks and smiling with their teeth instead of their
hearts or souls. Telephone Call's protagonist, the African man, brings all the sterotypes
about blacks down and shows his race in a brighter light. The conclusion is that there are
truly no 'bad' or 'good' people; The world isn't this simple, not everything is black and
white. Sometimes people who we consider 'good' become 'bad', in our case, these are the
children who go from being honest and nonchallant to being cold-hearted, numb
creatures, more commonly known as young-adults.