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, and Wideman has given speeches and written stories and articles questioning the prison system and the high rates of incarceration for black males in the United States.
In the story, Wideman's narrator emphasizes the dehumanization of the...
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