Telephone Conversation Analysis

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In this essay I am going to write how Still I Rise by Maya Angelou and Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka show prejudice. Maya Angelou, an African American and Wole Soyinka, a Nigerian man are both black poets. They want to portray their views and beliefs on color prejudice. Even though the poems were written in different decades they have many similarities in their theme and message. Telephone Conversation was written in the 1960s. People’s views, beliefs, and opinions were different then from the 1980s, when Still I Rise was written, and different again from now a days. People now will have different responses to both poems. The title of Telephone Conversation reveals the fact that two people are talking on the phone. The black man is …show more content…

On the other hand, Wole Soyinka uses alliteration to show how the lady reacted when she found out the man was black/African “Clinical, Crushing.” These two words were used to portray the coldness in the lady’s tone when she found out the man was African. One of the other ways Maya Angelou makes her poem stand out is when she makes parts of her poem like questions “Does my sassiness upset you? Do you want to see me broken? Does my haughtiness offend you? Does my sexiness offend you?” By questioning the readers (you), it catches the reader’s attention and the reason why this is so affective is because it makes the readers realize how some people made the person (I) feel or how many people might be feeling. This takes the readers to the next level by giving the readers more knowledge about the poem. Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka, the poet shows irony for example at the beginning of the poem, the African man says that he has to self-confess and reveals his skin color which is black. He has also no control over the fact that the man feels ashamed for his skin color is ironical and shows how bad racism can

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