SuitabookAnger is a Gift
Mark Oshiro
- Reading
- Consider checking in after the passages about Moss’s father and his panic attacks. Let the reader set the pace, and return to the conversation after the students’ organising or the later tragedy.
- Themes
- Grief and panic: Moss’s father was murdered by a police officer; Moss has panic attacks and is affected by the media’s portrayal of his father. These experiences are presented as part of Moss’s situation; how the story develops or resolves them is not established.
- Policing and student action: Moss and classmates face random locker searches, new rules and police intimidation at school, then organise to challenge the administration. The situation raises questions about institutional power and student protest, but the story’s full evaluation of either is not established.
- Anger and choice: After a further tragedy, Moss faces a choice framed as giving in to fear and hate or recognising anger as a gift. The framing invites reflection on anger’s possible meaning; the outcome and the story’s final position are not established.
- Worth knowing
- The story includes a parent’s murder by a police officer, grief, panic attacks, police intimidation and a further tragedy. These elements may feel intense; the nature of the later tragedy is unclear.