There is a change in volume sensed in the dialogue, ranging from silence to quite loud, namely when the landlady speaks. The irregularity of the volume helps to create tension between the two characters. The line length is slightly irregular, ranging from eight to twelve syllables per line (except the final line). This contributes to an irregular rhythm. The poem is in the form of continuous verse, which is often used for dialogue and stories; it suits this poem as we get to hear the feelings of the man and the dialogue between the two characters, so that we can identify the racism and prejudice easily. The tone varies throughout the poem depending on what the man is saying, when he uses humour he creates a sarcastic tone, e.g. ‘Considerate she was, varying the emphasis’ (line 17), which emphasises his annoyance and shock over her questions to him. The man also creates ironic tones, for example, when he says ‘Down in my passport’. Direct tones are established when the man speaks directly to the landlady, such as ‘You mean like plain or milk chocolate’, and also tense tones depending whether there is dialogue, description or the man’s emotions.
Throughout the poem there is absence of the definite article ‘the’. The very first word of the poem is ‘the’ and that is the only place it is in the entire poem, it is sometimes substituted by a pronoun such as ‘her’ to highlight that it is associated with the landlady, e.g. ‘sensing her receiver rearing on the thunderclap about my ears’. The lack of the definite article in other parts of the poem (an example of elision), together with the lack of verbs emphasises the man’s shock, e.g. ‘Stench of rancid breath of public hide and seek’, and it makes the poem less formal and more direct. Whenever the landlady says anything, her words are in capital letters, this is to highlight them in the poem as she says all of the racist remarks, so the capital letters emphasises them.
The purpose for Wole Soyinka writing this poem about racism is unclear, his target audience may be just everyone, and his purpose to inform them about the racism that took place in the 1960s, and in some places of the world is still taking place today. Wole Soyinka may have come to this country in the 1960s and experienced something very similar to what he described in the poem. Wole Soyinka may see this as a stereotypical scene from the 1960s where a black man tries to settle in a white community.
Therefore Wole Soyinka creates two stereotypical characters from the 1960s and portrays racism by a number of techniques; direct speech, the Landlady’s feelings, repetition, the fact that the narrator identifies with her racism, use of dialogue, change in volume (including use of silence), rhythm and questions.
‘You Will be Hearing From us Shortly’, by UA Fanthorpe, is a poem about an interview, where the interviewer is prejudiced against the interviewee. U A Fanthorpe uses many techniques to portray prejudice and stereotypes in this poem; most prejudice is mainly shows as intimidation, as the interviewer shows his contempt for the person he is interviewing. The title ‘You Will be Hearing From us Shortly’ is a stereotypical response from a interviewer to their applicant even though they know that they are not going to contact them again
The form of the poem is irregular; there are six stanzas all of different lengths with the interviewer’s responses to the interviewee’s defence in-between. As the poem is in free verse, the informality of the form compares to the informal and colloquial style of the poem. The poem is the transcription of the interviewer; the response from the person being interviewed is not included, this makes any prejudice or stereotype said by the interviewer stand out as there is no defensive reply. The way the poem is written gives the reader the impression that the poem is a scripted dialogue, with only one side of the dialogue shown.
The six stanzas in the poem all cover different attributes about the interviewee’s application for the position. The first stanza is a general introduction where there are no prejudiced remarks. The second stanza is where we hear the first negative line from the interviewer about the interviewee. This stanza is about qualifications, and the interviewer states that ‘though impressive, are not, we must admit, precisely, what we had in mind’ (lines 6-8). This first negative comment is also the first intimidating remark. The ‘we’ is also very intimidating as the interviewer makes it appear that there are more than one of them, like the ‘royal we’.
The third stanza is about the applicant’s age, the fact that the interviewer says ‘Now your age’ shows that he is prejudiced against him/her because of their age, also the fact that he misses out the verb in this sentence, and in other sentences that are the first in the stanza gives the impression that he/she is going through a list of faults, of which the candidate has probably all or most of them. This shows his formal approach to the interview, and is another way by which he intimidates his interviewee. The list also gives the impression that this interviewer has had/is going to have many interviews, and he/she wants to go through all those which he sees are not going to have a chance at getting the job fairly quickly. The efficiency of this method may also be slightly intimidating to the interviewee, as they realise they are going through a list and there are other candidates who are probably more suitable according to this list.
The fourth stanza shows the interviewer’s contempt strongly for the interviewee for the first time; this verse describes the appearance of the interviewee, of which he is highly critical and offensive, e.g. ‘You do appreciate that this work involves contact with the actual public? Might they, perhaps find your appearance disturbing?’ (lines 18-20). The repetition of the word ‘you’ throughout the poem puts emphasis on the interviewee, and is intimidating. When the interviewer says ‘might they’ he is insulting the interviewee without actually stating a critical comment; he is merely suggesting it, although the interviewee will understand what his view is. The fact that the interviewer is going through a list of faults and appearance is on it shows that he is prejudice against people because of their appearance, opposed to their qualifications or ability for the position.
In the next stanza, the interviewer starts with a snide comment ‘And your accent?’, once again missing out the verb as if he/she is going through a list of faults. The interviewer does not say anything negative about the accent; once again he/she just implies that it is a fault. He/she is prejudiced against the interviewer because of their accent, something that they cannot help that they have, and something that should not be seen as a handicap. The interviewer offends with a question ‘That is the way you have always spoken, is it?’, which again is implying offence but not stating it. The interviewer then says ‘What of your education? Were you educated? We mean of course, where were you educated?’ (Lines 24-27). The line ‘were you educated’ is a Freudian slip, a slip of the tongue where the interviewer reveals his opinion by accident. It may not be a Freudian slip but an intentional comment to offend the interviewer without actually insulting him/her. The ‘we’ once again is an intimidating trick, where the interviewer tries to make it appear that there is more than one of him/her. The final sentence is offensive to the place where she was educated as the interviewer asks ‘how much of a handicap is that to you?’
The last stanza is a general putdown of the applicant. The opening line is ‘Married, children, we see.’ The ‘we see’ gives the reader the hint that these features alone are enough to reject a contender. The following sentence is extremely cynical, as it has no main verb, e.g. ‘The usual dubious desire to perpetuate what had better not have happened at all.’ The ‘perpetuate’ as well as ‘adequate’ in the opening line of the poem both show the interviewer’s pure contempt for the interviewee. This sentence shows pure prejudice, the interviewer is insulting his candidate to a very high level, and this is personal rather than professional. The interviewer may be annoyed with this type of candidate who he knows have no chance of getting the job, yet still waste his time. This may be his way to deal with them as quickly as he can. We can see the prejudice is personal in the next line, ‘We do not ask what domestic disasters shimmer behind that vaguely unsuitable address.’ The interviewee’s domestic life is not relevant to the application; he is also prejudiced against certain areas, such as one that this candidate comes from, which also is not relevant to the job application.
The final phrases ‘And you were born’ and ‘So Glad we agree’ finish the poem off with a rhetorical question, which is another example of a suggestive insult with actually stating it to the candidate’s face. The final sentence ‘so glad we agree’ just sums up the interviewer’s feelings that the candidate is entirely unsuitable. As he says ‘we agree’ this suggests to the reader that the candidate has given in and accepted the fact that he is not going to get the position.
Between each stanza the interviewer says a comment in response to the interviewee’s defence over what the interviewer has just said. These are always sarcastic, such as ‘Indeed’, ‘So glad we agree’, ‘Quite so’, etc, which makes the interviewee feel intimidated, and slightly mocked as it gives the impression that the interviewer is not taking any notice of what he/she has just said.
Therefore, in ‘You will be Hearing From Us Shortly’, the interviewer is portrayed as a typical interviewer who is prejudiced against any applicant not matching up to his ideal criteria. U A Fanthorpe shows his prejudice using a number of techniques, such as the cynical tone, intimating sentences, suggesting facts (not stating them), sarcastic and insultive tones, a distant style, the Freudian slip, the use of rhetorical questions, the absence of the candidate’s replies, and the lack of verbs.
‘Not My Best Side’ by U A Fanthorpe is a poem describing the reaction of three characters from the legend of St. George and the Dragon to a painting of them by Uccello. The poem not only challenges the stereotypes of the myth but also creates new ones and comments upon relationships today.
The poem is in a informal form of three monologues, spoken by the Dragon, the damsel and George (the knight.) The poem therefore has an informal structure; each monologue is in free verse with no regular line length. Each character has a stereotypical voice, as the poet challenges the typical stereotypes of the legend. U A Fanthorpe challenges the themes of man versus beast and heroism. The first monologue is spoken by the dragon, he is portrayed as a stereotypical actor. The dragon is very critical of the painting, he does not approve of the style. He is very self-obsessed; he ‘was sorry for the bad publicity’. He sees himself as an important character in the poem e.g. ‘taking me seriously’, but he feels that he is not being treated with the respect that he deserves. The dragon is slightly pompous, he wants only the best actor to play George, to match his own great qualities, e.g. ‘Why, I said to myself should my conqueror be so contentiously beardless, …’ He is also critical of the actress who plays the damsel, e.g. ‘Why should my victim be so unattractive as to be inedible’.
The voice created by this character is very cheerful, not evil and threatening like in the traditional story. This voice is created by word choice, such as ‘Poor chap’, ‘Literally on a string’; these phrases are not associated with evil characters, but more with high-spirited people. There are no threatening or intimidating phrases or words in this monologue. He also asks questions to himself, such as ‘Why, I said to myself should my conqueror be so ostentatiously beardless…’. This makes the tone less formal, and shows the talkativeness of his character. The dragon uses quite complex sentence structure; he uses a lot of main clauses linked together with conjunctions and commas, which also adds to the chatty tone. The shortest sentence is the opening one, ‘Not my best side, I’m afraid’, all of the other sentences are much longer, with at least three clauses.
The dragon is obviously relatively well spoken, as he uses some complex words such as ‘ostentatiously’. The tone created by this character is a combination of agreeable, friendly and pleasant tones. Therefore the stereotype created by U A Fanthorpe is of a quite well spoken, chatty, pompous actor. The original stereotype of the dragon in the legend, such as in ‘A book of dragons’ from 1970 was of a fierce, evil dragon e.g. ‘The dragon rages for his food – and our children perish. Let your daughter be given to him as our sons and daughters have been.’ This version of the story uses traditional stereotypes, whereas U A Fanthorpe creates new stereotypes, showing us that not all dragons are necessarily evil and vicious.
The damsel speaks in the second monologue, and once again is not the stereotypical princess from the traditional story. She is portrayed as more of a modern, feminist woman, who is not enthralled with the knight. Instead she is actually enchanted with the dragon, e.g. ‘And lovely green skin, and that sexy tail.’ She is also quite courageous as she does not mind the threat of the dragon, she even says that ‘he made me feel he was all ready to eat me’. She didn’t approve of the boy turning up; unlike in the traditional story where George rescued the princess, this damsel is much more independent. She is perhaps a stereotypical feminist doesn’t need any male help. She appears to be a much more modern woman; she judges whether the boy is suitable to rescue her, and she decides he is not as ‘he might have acne, blackheads, or even bad breath for all I could tell.’ This shows how modern society judges people more for their appearance opposed to their actions.
She is also a bit snobbish; the dragon wasn’t good enough for her as ‘the dragon got himself beaten by the boy’. She, like the dragon, also has a cheerful, chatty voice created by questions to herself, e.g. ‘Still what could I do?’, and chatty comments such as ‘to be honest’. She uses quite a basic vocabulary, the longest word she uses is ‘machinery’, when she says this it shows another modern feature of society. She also uses the word ‘boy’, not knight as she presumably considers him too immature to be a knight. Her sentences are all quite simple but nevertheless quite long as she uses many conjunctions and commas to make one sentence out of many main and subordinate clauses, which makes her voice a lot less formal and more cheerful.
The original stereotype of the princess in the legend, such as in ‘A book of dragons’ from 1970 was of a damsel in distress, who needed the knight to rescue her from the evil dragon, e.g. “‘By your Gods and mine, fly swiftly, noble knight,” she begged. “No-one may save me and you will only share my fate.” ’ This is not at all like the woman portrayed in ‘Not my Best Side’, as she has no respect for ‘the noble knight’, and she doesn’t even feel threatened by the dragon.
The third monologue is that of George, the knight. He is portrayed not as the heroic figure of St George, but of a modern, technologically minded, self-obsessed man. In the poem, George is very boastful, e.g. ‘I have diplomas in Dragon management and Virgin Reclamation’, showing the stereotype of a young male. The knight also has ‘the latest model’ horse, and his spear is also ‘custom built’, which is also a stereotype of a young man who has to get the best car etc. U A Fanthorpe creates the stereotype of a man who is always trying to get the latest gadget. George tells the dragon that ‘You can’t do better than me at the moment’ showing his snobbery and that he is self-centred (in his monologue he mentions no-one but himself). He is very offensive; e.g. ‘So why be difficult?’ which is basically telling the dragon that he has no chance of beating him. It may also show laziness, as he would rather the dragon give in than for him to fight him properly. He is conservatively minded, as he believes in ‘the roles that society and myth have created for you’; this is probably the cause of his snobbery as he believes he is better than everyone else. He is prejudiced against the dragon, he sees him as his lower, e.g. ‘What, in any case does it matter what you want? You’re in my way.’
George is proud of the painting, which shows his ‘latest model’ and hi-tech equipment. He sees himself as a hero, considers himself brave and the rescuer of the damsel. His character creates a offensive, impolite and abrupt voice. He uses some quite advanced word vocabulary, such as ‘prototype’, ‘obsolescence’ as he feels this words make him more important. His questions e.g. ‘So shy be difficult’ help to create a superior, offensive tone. He uses quite long sentences, mostly compound opposed to complex, unlike the other characters he is not chatty but he simply describing and praising himself, using lists, statements and questions. Therefore George is portrayed as a stereotypical modern, young, conservatively minded, self-obsessed, snobbish man.
The original stereotype of St. George the knight is that of a brave hero, risking courageously his life to save a beautiful princess, such as in ‘A book of dragons’ from 1970, e.g. ‘Then George leapt upon his horse, made the sign of the cross, and commending himself to God and Our Saviour set his spear in rest and charged the Dragon. So true and strong was his aim that the spear went through the monster’s throat and deep into its body, and it stopped in its course and fell upon its side, grievously hurt.’ This shows how brave the traditional George was, opposed to the self-obsessed modern George in ‘Not my Best Side’.
Therefore ‘Not my Best Side’ challenges the traditional stereotypes; U A Fanthorpe makes the point that not all dragons are evil and vicious, not all women are dependant on men and not all men are brave and heroic. U A Fanthorpe creates new stereotypes, e.g. a stereotypical actor, a stereotypical feminist woman and a stereotypical self-obsessed, hi-tech man. Her intention for this may be to comment on how the relationship between men and women today is a far cry from the day of St. George, nowadays there is more equality and freedom, but people of both sexes are more judgemental. U A Fanthorpe also emphasises the point that you cannot escape ‘the roles that sociology and myth have created for you’.
In Telephone Conversation, Wole Soyinka creates a stereotypical landlady who is racist. Prejudice is portrayed using a number of techniques; direct speech, the Landlady’s feelings, repetition, the fact that the narrator identifies with her racism, use of dialogue, change in volume (including use of silence), rhythm and questions. In comparison, in ‘You will be Hearing From Us Shortly’ U A Fanthorpe shows prejudice using a number of techniques, such as the cynical tone, intimating sentences, suggesting facts (not stating them), sarcastic and insultive tones, a distant style, the Freudian slip, the use of rhetorical questions, the absence of the candidate’s replies, and the lack of verbs. Also the interviewer is portrayed as a typical interviewer who is prejudiced against any applicant not matching up to his ideal criteria. In ‘Not My Best Side’, U A Fanthorpe challenges the traditional stereotypes and also creates new stereotypes, (a pompous actor, a snobbish feminist and a self-obsessed man). She also emphasises the point that you cannot escape ‘the roles that sociology and myth have created for you’. Therefore the three poems all convey prejudice, racism and show stereotypes in different ways that are all effective and work to make the poems successful.
