Literature is commonly viewed as a way of expressing oneself. Race is an indispensable part of a person’s identity, and therefore an aspect of a person that can manifest itself in literature. Terrance Hayes uses the concept of race in “We Should Make a Documentary About Spades” to show the past oppression experienced by his ancestors and how there are ways to overcome the unjust treatment his past relatives were subject to; for example, through simple things such as a card game called Spades or the true notion of family. These simple things can indicate the proper character of our identity. Hayes’ makes something clear from the beginning that family is not restricted to your blood relatives, it is open to those that “[are] not your brother
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A word that one might be surprised to see in Hayes’ poem is “diasporafied” because it is not recognized by any dictionary (Hayes, 2015). While “diasporafied” is technically not a word, Hayes still uses it correctly. He was referring to the word “diaspora” and connecting the way Jewish people were separated to the way he feels about his people being forcefully brought on “anti-cruise ships bound for the Colonies” and the way he feels separated from the rest of the world while at a card table with his family (Hayes, …show more content…
It brings to mind the lashings of African American people when he separates the word “Slapping” from “A card”, the sound that the whips must have made and the screams that might have been let out is excruciating to think about, hence “Renege” (Hayes, 2015). The simple shift in lines generates the feeling of not being able to do anything about the lashings; not being able to help another person who is suffering, which is what a family is supposed to do. While the difference of races was looked at as something negative in the past, it is embraced in the present. Prendergast expresses the importance of race in composition in “Race: The Absent Presence in Composition Studies” (Prendergast, 1998, p. 37). The phrase “absent presence” may sound a bit confusing, but an analogy that explains it simply is that you have a work of art and the absent presence is the idea that is implied by the painting, but not explicitly drawn on the canvas. Prendergast’s (1998) main goal is to address the presence of the race of the writer and how it deserves literary recognition (p.
A word that one might be surprised to see in Hayes’ poem is “diasporafied” because it is not recognized by any dictionary (Hayes, 2015). While “diasporafied” is technically not a word, Hayes still uses it correctly. He was referring to the word “diaspora” and connecting the way Jewish people were separated to the way he feels about his people being forcefully brought on “anti-cruise ships bound for the Colonies” and the way he feels separated from the rest of the world while at a card table with his family (Hayes, …show more content…
It brings to mind the lashings of African American people when he separates the word “Slapping” from “A card”, the sound that the whips must have made and the screams that might have been let out is excruciating to think about, hence “Renege” (Hayes, 2015). The simple shift in lines generates the feeling of not being able to do anything about the lashings; not being able to help another person who is suffering, which is what a family is supposed to do. While the difference of races was looked at as something negative in the past, it is embraced in the present. Prendergast expresses the importance of race in composition in “Race: The Absent Presence in Composition Studies” (Prendergast, 1998, p. 37). The phrase “absent presence” may sound a bit confusing, but an analogy that explains it simply is that you have a work of art and the absent presence is the idea that is implied by the painting, but not explicitly drawn on the canvas. Prendergast’s (1998) main goal is to address the presence of the race of the writer and how it deserves literary recognition (p.