Anger

An undertone of anger is picked up throughout the book. There is the anger of blacks against the repression and mistreatment they have experienced at the hands of whites. This is evident in Angela when she is a child in Birmingham. Her family was the first black family in a white neighborhood. Since they stayed on their own side of the street, they didn't have any problems. When a black family moved on the other side of Center Street, the house was dynamited. Angela notices the differences in the schools for the whites and the blacks.

The anger at their mistreatment is felt in the prison systems. There are many instances where Angela points this out. At one point when they were being moved during an emergency, Angela is cuffed with her hands behind her back, a Chicano woman and another black woman are handcuffed to each other...