Anger Is a Gift

Since witnessing his father’s murder six years earlier, Moss’s life has been marked by trauma, manifesting in anxiety, nightmares, and especially panic attacks. Indeed, he collapses within the first chapters of the book after being triggered by a protest against the police murdering another unarmed person of color. The fact that Esperanza is so used to them and so well-versed in how to respond helps to highlight both how regular they are and what a debilitating and significant effect they have on his life. The same is true of the fact that Moss has several techniques given to him by a therapist for dealing with them, including sorting through a “Rolodex” of happy memories of his father, without which he cannot get the sound of the gun or the sight of the blood out of his head. In this sense, Moss’s panic attacks are symbolically significant, highlighting the lasting effects of police brutality and the fact that victims of violence and murder by the police extend far beyond those actually killed or injured by them.