Part 3 also contains a discussion of the 'FAV' button of the TV remote and the speaker reveals that her two saved channels are the independent film channel and HBO. She connects Bush's election to a feeling of sadness which is caused by the knowledge that someone's life can not matter to someone else, particularly if that person holds a position of power. She highlights the fact that Bush did not know the details about a hate crime in Texas. In Part 3, the speaker discusses George W Bush's election in 2000. After this, she tells the story of her friend with Alzheimer's who etched the words 'this is the most miserable in my life' onto a chalkboard (17). In Part 2, the speaker describes her relationship with the television, noting that she leaves it on all the time in her room. The speaker also touches on suicidal thoughts and a friend of hers who passed away from breast cancer in Part 1. She remembers her mother's miscarriage and her paternal grandmother's death as examples of death in her life. In Part 1, the speaker recollects her musings on death as a child she recounts always asking 'Is he dead, is she dead?' about characters she saw on TV (6). The work is broken up into 18 sections that are separated by blank pages and an image of a TV with static on the screen.

Instead, it uses the recollections and musings of the narrator, each of them their own scene, to paint a picture of American identity as Rankine understands it in 2004. The book does not contain a specific narrative arc.

In Don't Let Me Be Lonely, Rankine uses a first-person speaker, which gives the work the feeling of an internal monologue.

Claudia rankine dont let me be lonely