What stood out to me most throughout the Gendered Violence unit was the tone in which violence was portrayed across different authors. Although each story contained description of violence or abuse in some form, the tone in which that violence was discussed varied, and added perspective to the day to day lives of these people.

In most stories, violence was detailed or at minimum made obvious to the reader, however the tone in which it was discussed implied normality. In this sense there existed themes of violence and abuse but there lacked any feeling of “horror”. Instead violence was made to be seen as a reality of life, one that was unavoidable.

However Garza offers us a very different perspective. Here we are immediately provided detailed imagery of bodies hanging off a bridge. Further Garza is conscious in her writing of the atrocities of the violence that persists. She is aware of the normality of this violence but makes a conscious effort to critique the source of this violence, recognizing that change must occur.