Anger Is a Gift

Throughout the novel, Moss suffers from panic attacks. What does Moss’s panic condition reveal about his past?

Reflect upon 2-3 moments in the text when Moss experiences a panic attack. What are the events and experiences that typically trigger an attack for Moss? How do the people around Moss respond to these attacks? What does their response say about their relationship with Moss?

Teaching Suggestion: Moss’s panic attacks are the manifestation of the trauma from seeing his father’s murder six years prior. His panic condition also is the result of Moss’s life, more generally, having been marked by trauma. In the first chapters of the book, Moss experiences a panic attack that is triggered by a protest against police brutality; he regularly experiences them in the presences of police. In terms of Moss’s relationships, his friends—for instance, Esperanza—respond in a way that highlights how regularly they occur and how debilitating they are to Moss’s life. That his friends and family accept him even as he struggles with mental health issues proves they are genuine and deep relationships for Moss.

Differentiation Suggestion: For advanced classes, have students explore this prompt—the nature of mental health struggles for Black youth and other kids of color—from a legal policy angle, asking the following question: What policies could be implemented in order to avoid some of the stress and trauma that comes as a result of growing up in underprivileged communities, particularly for BIPOC kids? Have students read through The Economic Policy Institute’s “

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