“What We Cannot Speak About We Must Pass Over in Silence” by John Edgar Wideman was first published in the December 2003 issue of Harper's. It is also available in a collection of Wideman's stories, God's Gym (2005). This disturbing story features an anonymous black, middle-aged male narrator who becomes obsessed by the imprisoned son of a dead friend.
He spends much time struggling with prison bureaucracy in order to track the man down to a prison in the Arizona desert. The story, which is told in a stream-of-consciousness style, reflects Wideman's concerns about the high levels of incarceration of African American men (as of 2006, Wideman's younger brother and son were serving life sentences). Themes include the dehumanizing nature of the prison system, the political and economic division between the races, and the social isolation and fear felt by many African Americans. Also emphasized are the broader human difficulties of gaining reliable knowledge and of forming connections with, and knowledge of, other people in a society characterized by disconnection, fragmentation, and mechanization.
This complete Introduction contains 173 words. This
study guide contains 11,958 words (approx. 40 pages at 300
words per page).
