Prejudice in Telephone Conversation and Dinner Guest-Me Essay -- Wole

Prejudice in Telephone Conversation and Dinner Guest-Me In the two poems, ‘Telephone Conversation’ and ‘Dinner Guest-Me,’ each poet uses their poetry as a means of confronting and challenging prejudice. In ‘Telephone Conversation’ by Wole Soyinka, a phone conversation takes place between an African man and a very artificial lady about renting out a room. When the lady finds out he is African she becomes very prejudiced and racist towards him. ‘Dinner Guest-Me’ by Langston Hughes is about a black man going to a dinner party where he is the only coloured person there, like he is the ‘token black.’ Anger and a sense of humour are shown in both of the poems. In ‘Telephone Conversation’ the African man is angry at the â€Å"peroxide blond† and is disgusted at her for being so rude and racist towards him, â€Å"HOW DARK? ARE YOU LIGHT OR VERY DARK?† The capital letters emphasises the loudness in her voice, whereas, in Langston Hughes poem the other dinner guest are not being prejudiced to the only black dinner guest directly. Although they would ask him â€Å"the usual questions that come into white mind.† Here they are set apart from him as a different race, â€Å"to be part of a Problem on Park Avenue at eight is not so bad.† He’s angry because he is still part of the Negro Problem even though he is with elegant, upper-class people. Hughes is laughing at the white people complaining about not being black, â€Å"I’m so ashamed of being white,† also at the democratic process and him self. He uses satirical humour at the dinner party by poking at establishment. He acknowledges that â€Å"I know I am the Negro Problem† and is aware they have to be polite about him. Wole Soyinka uses sarcastic humour and makes fun of the landlady when he wr... ...ws plenty of anger from Wole Soyinka towards the artifical, white, public. Hughes also seems to be mad at the white populace and thoroughly benefits from poking fun at them. I think Soyinka is trying to make a point of the phony and vulgar individuals there are and draw everyone’s’ attentions to them, Hughes is trying to make us realise just how obnoxious some can be to different races, likewise to Soyinka. I believe both poets succeeded, the poems did make me consider how prejudice many persons are. In conclusion I prefer ‘Dinner Guest-Me’ by Langston Hughes because I enjoyed the satirical humour he used in his poem and how he made the ‘token black’ stand out from all the other guests. Although I think that both use their poetry well as a means of confronting and challenging prejudice that was around back in the 1900s when the two poems were written.