How does photography work as an integral aspect of how Natasha tells her mother’s story?

In what ways does Natasha demonstrate that those around her were socially conditioned to downplay or overlook the severity of her mother’s abuse? What do those details reveal about the South of her time and about the nation? What do those details also reveal about the forms of misogyny that persist and prevent social justice for battered women?

What do you think of the relative absence of Rick Trethewey in the period of Gwen’s remarriage? How might Joel’s abuse of Gwen and Natasha, as well as Gwen’s embrace of the Afrocentricity of the 1970s have prefigured his marginal presence during this decade?