What Is The Theme Of Anger Is A Gift By Mark Oshiro

Anger is a Gift

Ash Tinoco What do you do with anger? In the critical literacy novel Anger is a Gift by Mark Oshiro, Moss Jeffries is a teenager put in a world where police brutality is normal, and it comes knocking at his school’s doorstep, a poor high school in West Oakland, California. He uses his new-found anger to help put a stop to the attacks by organizing protests and other strikes. Symbolism, dialogue and inner thinking are all combined as the author's craft moves in Anger is a Gift by Oshiro. The most prominent author’s craft Oshiro incorporates in this novel is symbolism. The best use of symbolism in this book is when Mrs. Torrence hands out a book called ‘Things Fall Apart’, and things actually do start to fall apart at his school

The dialogue is straightforward, but still gets the message across. When everyone is gathering at the church for the second time and Rebecca reveals that she told the principal about the walk-out protest, Moss completely loses it and starts yelling at her in front of everyone. (“Well, I’ve already talked to him about this matter once.” The gasps were audible. Moss felt his heart drop to his stomach… “You told him,” Moss said, to himself at first. The sound in the church began to rise, so the next words out of his mouth were at the top of his lungs. “YOU F****** TOLD THEM!” pg. 320 - 321) This shows how angry he is at Rebecca, to the point of screaming and swearing at her. On a lighter note, the dialogue also conveys more light-hearted conversations. When everyone’s meeting in the church for the first time, a lot more people came than expected, and Moss goes over to his mom to talk about it. (“Mama, what are you doing?” … “Pretty good turnout, no?” “That’s an understatement,” he said. “I guess I didn’t expect you to have the same pull as you used to.” “To be honest, neither did I,” … “It’s been years since I’ve done any organizing.” pg. 207) The conversation helps show how both Moss and his mom care about stopping police brutality, but are still surprised that a lot of people show up. It also shows how Moss’s mom cares about him, even in a casual conversation like