Manipulation In Claudia Rankine's Don T Let Me Be Lonely
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First of all, for an individual who considers themselves “happy,” reading Claudia Rankine’s Don’t Let Me Be Lonely is a manipulation in self-control. Many times I found myself angrily screaming at the lifeless novel “can’t she finish her rant and stop being so miserable?” Yet to read Rankine’s dangerous novel as a gloomy criticism would certainly be missing her point. This is perhaps best illustrated in the opening piece concerning Rankine’s father and his recently deceased mother. It’s interesting how Rankine describes her father as being totally disturbed with pain at receiving the news of his mother’s death. As distraught as her father may be is simply an occurrence to Rankine who is an adolescent at the time. She is no more connected to her father’s emotions following his loss than she would be trying to empathize with his aggravation over filing tax returns. Quite simply she may identify with the characters in her story but she cannot feel sorry for them.
Next, the ambulance driver that may or may not come to her door following a call to…show more content… Her unique effort is spread out all through with cultural references to historical events and politics. A continuous idea that appears looped throughout these situations is that death exists and many people fear the inevitability of death, which I insinuate that it’s something that Rankine fights with significantly. In one specific segment, she mentions her birthday, and says “It occurs to me that forty could be half my life or it could be all my life.” Rankine prolongs it connecting it to our society by stating, “On the television I am told I don’t want to look like I am forty. . .with injections of Botox, short for botulism toxin, it seems I can see or be seen without being seen; I can age without aging. I have the option of worrying without looking like I worry,” (104). The culture is controlling Rankine’s agency and enlightening her how to live her