‘‘The Aleph’’ begins in 1943 with Borges (the narrator) informing the reader of his love for Beatriz Viterbo, who (we are told) died in 1929. In an effort to devote himself ‘‘to her memory,’’ Borges began visiting Beatriz’s father and cousin, Carlos Argentino Daneri, every April thirtieth—Beatriz’s birthday. These visits occurred every year, and Borges…
What We Cannot Speak About We Must Pass Over in Silence – Analysis
John Edgar Wideman took the title of his story, “What We Cannot Speak About We Must Pass Over in Silence,” from the last line of a work by an Austrian philosopher: Tractatus LogicoPhilosophicus (1921) by Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951). A possible interpretation of Wittgenstein’s sentence and the argument that leads up to it is that the…
What We Cannot Speak About We Must Pass Over in Silence – Setting
Race, Imprisonment, and the Socioeconomic Divide In the later half of the nineteenth century, some American states passed laws restricting privileges given to emancipated African Americans after the Civil War. These so-called Jim Crow laws segregated African Americans from the white population and denied them equal status with whites in all aspects of their lives,…
What We Cannot Speak About We Must Pass Over in Silence – Literary Devices
Stream of Consciousness In this story, Wideman uses a stream-ofconsciousness and experimental language, both reminiscent of the work of the Irish novelist James Joyce (1882–1941). Stream-of-consciousness presents an interior monologue of the narrator, allowing us to see inside the mind of the character as it associates ideas and moves along in a flow of thoughts….
What We Cannot Speak About We Must Pass Over in Silence – Themes
Imprisonment “What We Cannot Speak About We Must Pass Over in Silence” features the narrator’s obsession with the imprisoned son of his dead friend. The story offers a critique of the prison system, reflecting the author’s activism on the subject. As of 2006, Wideman’s son and younger brother were both serving life sentences for murder,…
What We Cannot Speak About We Must Pass Over in Silence – Characters
Friend The narrator’s friend is already dead when the story opens. He is only once referred to by his name, Donald Williams. Before he died, the friend told the narrator that he had a son in prison, whom he visited about once a year. The friend said that the hardest part about visiting was walking…
What We Cannot Speak About We Must Pass Over in Silence – Summary
“What We Cannot Speak About We Must Pass Over in Silence” begins with the anonymous fiftyseven-year-old narrator announcing that he has a friend with a son in an Arizona prison. About once a year, this friend visits his son. The friend says that the hardest part of visiting is leaving, in the painful knowledge that…
Someone to Talk To by Deborah Eisenberg – Analysis
A reviewer from Kirkus Reviews calls the story “superb,” and R. Z. Sheppard, in a review for magazine, specifically praises the character Beale: “In ‘Someone to Talk To,’ a journalist who won’t stop gabbing about himself long enough to ask a question is worthy of Evelyn Waugh.” Gail Caldwell of the Boston Globe , however,…
Someone to Talk To by Deborah Eisenberg – Setting
Guatemala Though other Central American governments have mounted violent counterinsurgency campaigns, the description of the Indians’ persecution in “Someone to Talk To” bears a strong resemblance to the history of Guatemala in the 1980s. Though the Guatemalan army had used death squads to quash insurgents since the 1960s, the slaughter of political dissidents and their…
Someone to Talk To by Deborah Eisenberg – Literary Devices
Point of View “Someone to Talk To” is written in the third person limited omniscient; however, because the reader has access to only Aaron Shapiro’s thoughts and emotions, and no one else’s, the effect is similar to that of a first-person narrative. This is important, because otherwise readers would not experience the psychological upheaval that…