77 pages • 2 hours read
Kristen IversenA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
As a young woman, what is Iversen’s view on Rocky Flats? How does it change over time? What does the tone of her narration, as well as the material she chooses to include, indicate about her current stance on nuclear weapons?
Iversen discusses three fires that occur in the Rocky Flats facility: one in 1957, the Mother’s Day fire in 1969, and another in 2003. Briefly describe each fire. How does each fire change the plant’s operations, its public image, and/or the environment?
Name three characters who work to expose the secrets of Rocky Flats. How do the workers at the nuclear facility, as well as governmental agencies, treat these people? How does Iversen depict them, and what does this indicate about the book’s themes?
How do various family members react when Iversen’s father rides one of their horses for the first time and goes “completely out of control” (118)? How does this scene demonstrate Iversen’s relationships with her mother, father, and siblings? How does it foreshadow scenes to come?
In Chapter 4, Iversen depicts a 1987 protest against Rocky Flats from two points of view. Which characters provide these points of view, and what is the effect of this duality?
Describe the various waste storage methods used at Rocky Flats. Why does the traveling boxcar full of Rocky Flats waste cause such an uproar, and what does the incident portend about the future of the nuclear industry?
Iversen’s viewing of the ABC Nightline story proves a turning point in her view of Rocky Flats. How does the report affect her? How does it influence her decision to write a book about Rocky Flats?
How does the grand jury trial involving Rocky Flats end? What are the consequences to Rocky Flats and its affiliate organizations? Why does the jury go public with the events of the trial, and what happens at the subsequent congressional investigation?
Iversen decides to write her book about both Rocky Flats and her father. She states, “I can’t tell the story of the plant without telling the story of my family. It all seems connected” (283). Describe a few of the many connections between these two narratives.
To what does the title Full Body Burden refer? How do the physical effects of radiation relate to Iversen’s statement that “[t]he body is an organ of memory, holding traces of all our experiences” (338)? Describe some of the characters to whom this statement applies.