Since the dawn of mankind, inventions and technology have changed the world. The telephone has helped millions of people to get back in touch, and communicate with family and friends. It is truly and astonishing accomplishment to build machine like the telephone, which in the late 1800-hundreds were wired and connected to telephone poles, and wires. Once in a while technology out competes the human race, and gives a whole new, a barbarous aspect to the human race. Nevertheless, the acceptance from the telephone poles never reached the inhabitants in the USA, and some telephone poles had a totally different task. Some were used for lynching.
Discrimination and oppression has always been a crucial part of the white majority and the black minority´s life and history, and throughout hundreds of years, the black minority has been oppressed, and suffered due to slavery.
The American non-fiction writer Eula Biss wrote the essay “Time and distance overcome” in 2008, and the main theme in the text is the relationship between the black population and the white population.
The Text is divided into three separate parts, which is marked at the beginning of every part with three stars. This composition of the text gives, a clear structure, and chronological meaning to the text.
Eula Biss talks about how the telephone poles and the technology was implanted in the USA, and how the technology was met with scepticism and resistance from the American population at the beginning of the telephone history. The first part out of the three, is less barbaric than the other two, and is more about how the white majority and black minority was affected by the new telephones as well as the telephone poles. Eula focuses on the telephone poles way of creating a negative effect on the population.
“Wherever telephone companies were erecting poles, homeowners and business owners were sawing them down, or defending their sidewalks with rifles.” (PP.1-2. ll. 27-29).
Even though the telephone poles were met with scepticism the, poles are a symbol of something positive. It is a symbol of creating a connection to other people, and the fact is that in the end of the first part, Eula talks about the connection between people, despite the resistance from human beings. The telephone poles end up creating contact amongst people. “Despite the war on Telephone Poles, it would take only four years after Bell’s first public demonstration of the telephone for every town of over 10.000 people to be wired…” (P.2 l. 57-58).
Lynching and the oppression of the black people is a dominating aspect in the second part of the text were Eula talks about lynching of black people in telephone poles, and furthermore how the white majority treated the black race all across the USA.
The compositions in the text consist of different layers of seriousness and on the separate taxonomic levels, were Eula talks about her personal opinion and relation to the horrible incidents with the telephone poles and lynching of black people. Eula furthermore tells about her grandfather that worked with telephone poles, and how she was very proud of his work, due to her amazement that the new telephone poles gave her. Eula Thought that the telephone was a miracle, however, when she grew older Eula learned about the stories of lynching and discrimination.
“My grandfather was a lineman. He broke his back when a telephone pole fell…” (p.5, l. 136.)
“When I was young, I believed that the arc and swoop of telephone wires along the roadways were beautiful. “(p.5, l.138-139).
The wires and poles are a symbol of hope for Eula, even though she knows what cruelties have happened in the poles. The composition of the text is helping the narrator to creating a contact between the black and white, and furthermore trying to level out the social differences the black population and the white population meets today in the modern society.
Symbols are rather representative of the text, and especially the telephone poles can be compared with a crucifix, which is a sign for the white supremacies “And it was only coincidence that the telephone pole so closely resembled a crucifix.” (p.3, l.93-94).
“In Greenville, Mississippi, a black man accused of attacking a white telephone operator was hanged form a telephone pole. ‘The negro only asked time to pray’.” (p.3, l.86-88).
One can draw a parallel between the way black people were crucified, burned and killed on the telephone poles with the lynching of Jesus, who apparently was executed without reason. Exactly the same thing happened to the black people.
It is a symbol of the white majority and their inhumanity when they lynched black men.
The black race is in the way of the white race´s visions and dreams, and the fight against the telephone poles is symbolizing the fight against the black people and regaining purity in the society.
“And then there was a fierce sense of aesthetics, an obsession with purity, a dislike for the way the poles and wires marred a landscape…” (p.2, l.39-41).
What is Eula´s intention with the text?
Informing the reader, and telling them about the history of lynching and oppression black people is something that the narrator intend with the text.
“The lynchings happened everywhere, all over the United States. From shortly before the invention of the telephone to long after the first trans-Atlantic call.” (p.4, l.122-124).
Furthermore the narrator wants to show the reader the big gap between the black minority, and the white majority. You could say that a connection between the white, and the blacks is necessary between the two parties. The Telephone could become the part which could connect the blacks and the whites, but they get prevented in connecting because the telephone poles always gets cut down, and prevents the connection between the white and black population.
“Even now it is an impossible idea, that we are connected, all of us.” (p.1, l.9).
Eula believes that the white people were afraid of loosing their supremacies to the black people, and that is possibly were discrimination and racism started. Eula wants to show the reader what led to the racism, which could be the fight for power.
(p.2, l.39-41).
“The War on Telephone Poles was fueled, in part, by that terribly American concern for private property and a reluctance to surrender it to a shared utility.” (p.2, l.38-39).
However the most important intention with this text is to let everyone know that there is hope in the future, for a better relationship across different races, ethnicities, and cultures just like a better relationship between the white and the black population. There is still hope, and someday the relationship would be stronger than ever. “The telephone, Thomas Edison declared, ‘annihilated time and space, and brought the human family in closer touch’.” (p.2, l.63-64
“Time and distance overcome” is a title that has a double meaning, that refers to the fact that the telephone as well as technology can overcome and defeat the time and distance between people.
The final sentence are positive, and it can therefor be concluded that Eula believes in the future, and peace between the black and white population.