Herrera, Gabriel

Professor Payte
English 101
(Anti)Essay
If there is anything clear, or should I say unclear about Claudia Rankines book
Dont Let Me Be Lonely is its uncertainty. Its absolutely clustered and bombarded with
what seems to be an undeniable and emotional piece of literature that can in my opinion
make any reader without the patience or the capability to try to understand what the book
may be about, if there is something its truly about, vomit with rage. However, it is with
these feats that she accomplishes creating an absolute masterpiece. To describe this book
any other words would be an insult to the author. Its depressing, thought provoking, and
dark undertones with malicious twists and turns and no definite end is the definition of
what life truly is, It presents the thoughts that we as individuals may come across when
we are alone to our own thoughts. To keep it simple, Dont let me be Lonely is the story of
our minds, our lives and how confusing and lost it can be at times. And if there is
anything that I dare touch upon, its the complexity in which the book is written. It almost
emulates two different genres of literature, which is what makes so thought provoking,
switching from first to third person, giving you a sense of documentarive/narrative almost
as if its trying to tell us something, is it straight forward? I think so, but its hard to
understand. It goes without saying that at one time in our lives we have truly felt lonely,
have faced circumstances that have caused thoughts that we dont like to talk about or
address because those thoughts where at weak moments. To talk about it makes us
uncomfortable; we do everything to forget what and why these usually awful ideas run
through our minds, but to truly forget about is to certain degree a state of denial. While

many of us will never understand the damage that drug abuse, depression, losing
someone you cared or loved for, etc. that this book slaps to the face of the reader we all
can understand the feeling of being alone and sad. Its an ugly feeling, its a disgusting
feeling, and having to read something almost entirely about it makes it fairly easy to
understand why many find this particular book to be absolute garbage. This is the most
miserable in my life. Page seventeen describes a case of a friend who developed
Alzheimers, now while it describes the few issues he dealt with and has connection with
the flow of the book it doesnt do more than that. Flip two pages over it begin talking
about politics and a man forgotten, but what about the man with Alzheimers? It just sort
of end, and hes sort of just forgotten. Now this ties in perfectly with the strange layout,
the awkward pages and the printing style of the book that it from afar makes it look like a
bad coloring book. But, it is from only this manor that she was able to accomplish this
feeling of unjust, something that seems incomplete, as if its missing something making us
question more and for that reason it made this book absolute gold. Are theses short exerts
meant to tell us something or just play with the emotion attribute of our minds? That only
thing that is clear is that as we search through the book its trying to tell us something.
I will be the first to admit that I did not feel entirely comfortable reading this
piece of literature, it made me sad to be honest but the more and more I read the more I
feel in love with it. What was most important to me when it came to trying to understand
what this whole mess (clusterf*ck at its finest) was coming to terms that the thesis or the
main idea isnt something Im going to or any other person understand but rather accept
and do our best to enjoy. While to certain degree it isnt enjoyable, being confused and
addressing the ugly of the world is by far the farthest from enjoyable: but it is however,

the beautiful truth. We might not understand the meaning of life, we can do everything
possible to try to understand and make it better but to truly be living we must be aware of
it, be lost in the moment, and not be afraid from the ugly thoughts that run through our
minds. To quote the Claudia Rankines book Dont let Me Be Lonely from page 131, In
order for something to be handed over a hand must extend and a hand must receive. We
must both be here in this world in this life in this place indicating the presence of. In my
interpretation, dont get lost in the cluster, be present in not only your life but the lives of
others and to truly be living you mustnt be afraid to live.

If there is any underline

thesis to this it must be that, if not I will accept and do my best to enjoy it. From the
obscurity that is the overall manor of this book and the profound amount of strange
images taken from the media and early two thousand television sets it makes me wonder
if I am truly living or if anyone of us is truly alive. How can someone be aware of an idea
so frivolous as of the idea living life? Television screen page twenty nine, Your life is
waiting. Waiting for what? Am I not living, or am I caught between the ideas of my life
being what I make of it or am I just living with no defiant direction? How can anyone be
aware of this situation, we arent, its that simple. From this idea and everything that Ive
said previously is how Rankine coalesces all theses strange pieces. Theyre just thoughts,
our thoughts, and the human thoughts that at times keep us up at night. Strange as it may
seem this style of writing does more then just tell us a story, we are living it which is we
can understand from this book. While I was fairly young for many of these events to
remember I was living apart of it and since Im older but not a lot wiser I feel like I
understand. Thats what I think shes trying to get across, not to find the underline point
of her book but understand the problems be aware of it and not to turn a blind eye to the

problems in todays society, in our lives. While the majority of the book presents more
questions then answers, this achieving its true goal, understand not be understood, be
aware and to stop being lost. Now to say that makes complete sense is to say this book is
easy and fun read, but it doesnt have to make complete sense, thats not its intention.
This perfectly pieced, piece of imperfection challenges us and keeps us interested,
from the strange manor that its written to the cultural hardships that it address from
politics, to racism, terrorism, or any other ism. To say that this book has a true
identifiable meaning would be insult to its integrity, to understand its true elements;
however, and the underline components you have to break down the complexity, as a
whole its meaningless, its composes strangely with no fluidity but every individual
excerpt had its own more powerful meaning. Like I said before its not its intended to be
understood but for us to understand, to dig deeper. The title alone, Dont let me be
Lonely what fear does she or society have with being alone? Its not about being scared
its to acknowledge a problem, this addresses issues we deal with on a daily basis that we
tend to ignore. Ill be the first to say that this book is straight forward because while it is
broken up and strange, its straight to the point, there is a problem but its confusing simply
due to the fact that we do not know how to fix it. I am beyond confused still after reading
multiple times but I will accept that its okay and whomever feels the same will have to do
the same to try to understand it a little more. If Rankine goal was to make us think,
wonder, tell us the issues we face, she in return wants us to understand and realize that
there is a problem, now if this is understood, why is it hard to understand that its time to
fix it?