Humor
This is not a book that one would describe as robust with displays of humor. The topic of racialized trauma is not inherently funny. That said, the author does recognize the value of injecting a small dose of humor into the narrative. Arguably, the funniest passage is “One of the biggest, baddest, most relentless, and best-known alpha males in American history was a woman: the writer Ayn Rand. I have raised my children to be as unlike her as possible.” The humor derives from the unexpected juxtaposition of the description. The image presented by the delineation of character is dependent upon conventional association of the attributes “biggest, baddest, relentless” with masculinity only for that assumption to be upended with the punch line it is a woman who is being described as an alpha-male. That would be humorously ironic enough, but then the irony is dialed up with the additional self-descriptive imagery which reveals a wealth of information about the author to those equally indisposed to a future generation molded in the image of Ayn Rand.
Racism
A concrete visual image of actual circumstances experienced by the author’s wife (also black like him) is a display of unconscious racism. This brand of racist behavior which stands in opposition to consciously deliberate racism is illustrated in the story the author tells in which “My wife, Maria, purchased some household items at Wal-Mart and was pushing her cart toward the exit. A Wal-Mart employee stopped her, asked to see her sales receipt, and checked the items on the receipt against the items in her cart. Maria was thirsty, so instead of leaving the store, she bought a soft drink and sat down on a bench near the exit. Over the next two to three minutes, she watched as about twenty people left the store. The employee stopped to double-check the receipts of all eight of the Black customers who walked past—and none of the non-Black ones.” This is an example of imagery that proceeds from the advice routinely offered to young writers to “show, don’t tell.” Rather than simply telling the reader “my wife had an encounter with racism at the local Wal-Mart” he instead uses imagery which actually shows how this encounter with racism took place and was acted out. It is with the precise details of the imagery that the author is ultimately able to discount an incorrect interpretation of the incident as intentionally racist and instead suggest that the racism toward Black customers was not deliberate, but unconsciously reflexive.
The Ripple Effect
The premise of the book is that trauma manifests itself in more expansive and physical ways than is usually assumed. Claims are even made by the author that traumatic memories experienced by a parent can be passed down to the child. The author writes, “Unhealed trauma acts like a rock thrown into a pond; it causes ripples that move outward, affecting many other bodies over time.” The “ripple effect” is a familiar concept to most people and thus very useful as a simile for describing anything which fits the comparison. In this case, it is a useful choice by the author for describing a situation that is tricky to comprehend because so much is unknown about just how trauma works.
