3. PART A: How does the speaker use irony when addressing the landlady and responding to

her questions?

A. The speaker appears polite in conversation with the landlady when in reality

they are making fun of her.

B.

The speaker goes out of their way to be polite and respectful to the landlady to

convince her to rent the property to them.

C. The speaker is polite and considerate to the landlady to draw attention to how

rude she is being to them.

D. The speaker is kind and respectful towards the landlady, hoping that it will cause

her to be friendlier towards them.

A. The speaker appears polite in conversation with the landlady when in reality  they are making fun of her.

Explanation:

Wole Soyinka's poem "Telephone Conversation" is a poem about racism that is nicely and cleverly dealt with by the speaker. The poem revolves around a landlady and a speaker who is looking for a room. The landlady agrees to everything until she hears she's "African".

In the telephonic conversation, the landlady appears to be okay with everything until the speaker reveals she's "African". Then starts the real questioning- "HOW DARK? [. . .] ARE YOU LIGHT OR VERY DARK?" This racist tone became the main topic of the house inquiry from this point on, with the landlady trying to figure out the skin color of the speaker.

But the speaker carefully replies to such questions by ironically responding to them- "Facially I am brunette, but, madam, you should see the rest of me. Palm of my hand, soles of my feet are a peroxide blonde. Friction, caused [. . .] by sitting down has turned my bottom raven black". And if that wasn't enough, she ended the conversation cleverly by asking "Madam, wouldn't you rather see for yourself?"

Thus, the speaker uses irony in such a way that she uses polite language but at the same time mocks and makes fun of the landlady and her ignorance.

1. read the following excerpt from franklin d. roosevelt's "fireside chat 19":

on the other side of the picture, we must learn also to know that guerilla warfare against the germans in, let us say serbia or norway, us; that a successful russian offensive against the germans us; and that british successes on land or sea in any part of the world strengthen our hands.

remember always that germany and italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the united states at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with britain or russia. and germany puts all the other republics of the americas into the same category of enemies. the people of our sister republics of this hemisphere can be honored by that fact.  

the true goal we seek is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle. when we resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that this force shall be directed toward ultimate good as well as against immediate evil. we americans are not destroyers — we are builders.

analyze the effectiveness of this excerpt. how does it function within the speech as a whole? how does the structure of the excerpt to convey the speech's purpose and key points? support your argument with evidence from the speech. (10 points)