Compare and Contrast: "Strange Fruit" and "Telephone Conservation": Theme of
Danny Connolly 11.3
The two poems that I am going to compare are "Strange Fruit" and
"Telephone conversation" which both feature racial prejudice.
The first of the two poems that I will study is "Strange Fruit".
This is a very simple and meaningful poem. The author of this poem is
writing about what was happening to the black people of the southern states
of America. It shows exactly what happens to them when captured which
brings in some strong sentences "And the sudden smell of burning flesh"
I think that the most effective words of the poem are in the title
because you have to read the whole of the poem to understand what it means.
Lewis Allen the author tries to put the point across by making it
different from the usual news reports and broadcasts. He does this by
comparing it to the natural land and emphasising how bad it is "Scent of
magnolia sweet and fresh, And the sudden smell of burning flesh"
The poem itself has rhyming couplets in every two sentences just
like a simple poem.
The title suggests that the fruit is the unnatural black body
hanging from the tree which hangs like a fruit. This image makes it a
metaphor to give the whole poem an effect.
The authors intention is to make people understand exactly what is
going on. He also tries to make us feel guilty as we are the murderers
because we are white.
The poem 'Telephone conversation' is staged by a black man who is
looking for a flat but ends up phoning to a landlady who is racist but
tries to be polite in finding out whether he is he is a dark or light one.
When he first speaks to her he feels awkward as he feels he has to
confess that he is African. Also I think he feels as though he has been in
the same position before somewhere else and he knows what is expected from
people like the landlady he is speaking to.
When he tells her that he is African she becomes speechless and
wants to know if he is light or dark brown. She puts her ...