In “The Book of the Dead,” the role that the theme of social justice plays in Rukeyser’s work shows how she has advocated for the underprivileged and profoundly rooted herself in social justice via poetry as well as drawn attention to the injustices occurring at the Hawk’s Nest Tunnel tragedy at Gauley Bridge in the 1930s. She has been using distinctive documentary poetry forms that have combined lyrical descriptions, persona poetry, photographs, and legal documents. In order to raise awareness of the events occurring in the Hawk’s Nest Tunnel by taking into account the testimony of the workers during the trials. She has been providing these workers with an opportunity to express their truth about the catastrophe. These workers were employed by the Union Carbide project to construct a tunnel, which has led to a considerable number of fatalities. The workers developed silicosis, a deadly lung disease, as a result of their exposure to silica dust. She uses her poetry to advocate for the victims of the disaster; she has been giving voice to people who were silenced in this terrible event by using actual testimony, documentation, and witnesses. Since Rukeyser has been combining poetry and documentary, based on the miners’ statements that were heard during the trial and the places she’s been visiting to find more about the land’s and those people’s fates. It is clear from reading her poetry that it seeks to illustrate and convey the human cost of injustices, sexism, systematic racism, industrial disasters, and violent acts during the Hawk’s Nest Tunnel. Rukeyser has brought attention to the lack of protection that these workers, most of whom were African Americans, were not receiving while labor exploitation and misconduct occurred during the accident.

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.