Achieve Themselves to Death

In this passage, Claudia Rankine is sitting her car, reflecting on her day and her struggle against erasure. Rankine states, "They achieve themselves to death trying to dodge erasure." Although I believe this language is relatively one dimensional, this line fits Perrine's definition of poetry in that it conveys an experience, an experience that the narrator of the passage is ironically trying to distance herself from. Rankine is sitting in her car, frustrated with her day of attempted erasure, and yet distances herself from her feelings when she says, "THEY achieve themselves to death trying to dodge erasure." In the passage, she makes it clear that she is achieving herself to death as she struggles with stress stemming from racism.