Claudia Rankine’s Citizen is a powerful work. Part of its power, I think, comes from her use of second-person narration. The book also deals with serious subject matter, racism mostly, but there are other issues. This close reading looks at the speaker of the poem’s relationship to alcohol. You could call it an alcoholic reading of the text.
“You lean against the sink, a glass of red wine in your hand and then another, thinking in the morning you will go to the gym having slept and slept beyond the residuals of all yesterdays” (79).
The fact that the speaker has a glass of red wine, and then another (with no comma separating them), makes it seem that there is no break between drinks. It is common for a heavy drinker to consume drink after drink until bedtime, which is exactly what seems to be happening here, since the passage ends “having slept and slept.” “Beyond the residuals of all yesterdays” sounds like the speaker has things in her past that she wants to forget, so that she can get a good night’s sleep. The alcohol, of course, is one way to take care of that. The fact that she is thinking of going to the gym shows her guilt for consuming too much of an unhealthy substance.
“The sighing ceases; the headaches remain. You hold your head in your hands. You sit still. Rarely do you lie down. You ask yourself, how can I help you? A glass of water? Sunglasses?” (62).
This is not an isolated incident; she clearly has plural “headaches.” Maybe the speaker suffers from migraines, but anyone who has had a severe hangover knows this feeling. Water, sunglasses, you don’t want to lie down because the room will start to spin, making you nauseous.
These particular passages appear to be pointing toward alcoholism, and in the context of the entire work, the use of alcohol to deal with the stresses of being a black woman in America.
This final passage, I think, sums up the position of a heavy drinker. “You wouldn’t call it an illness; still it is not the iteration of a free being” (60). She could have just as easily written “it is not the iteration of a healthy being,” and it would have made sense, but she specifically chose the word “free” here. Of course, her word choice has to do with the racial issues discussed in the book, but it could also be hinting at freedom from addiction, as well.
Ben, it is very interesting the way you looked at this poem from this point of view, “alcoholic reading of the text.” I agree with you that Rankine deliberately mentions this topic, and, I think, she succeeds in allowing readers to get the feeling that she intends to convey when touching this matter. The last line, “your body running off each undesired desired encounter” (79) shows the drunk’s situation as it is affected by alcoholism over the past night. However, I am wondering if Rankine is discussing an isolated incident or she is stereotyping this behavior and its effects on range of people!