77 pages • 2 hours read
Kristen IversenFull Body Burden
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Weight of Secrecy
In the final chapter of Full Body Burden, Iversen writes: “The cost of silence and the secrets it contains is high, but you don’t learn the price until later. Secrets depend upon the smooth façade of silence, on the calm flat water that hides the darker depths” (300). Her book concerns the overwhelming cost of secrecy, which pertains both to the story of Rocky Flats and to that of her family. By exposing hidden truths, she warns future generations about the risks of nuclear production and makes its import personal with her own story.
Rocky Flats’ longstanding secrecy allows the plant to manufacture enormous storehouses of nuclear weapons, as well as contaminate the environment, without public knowledge. The Atomic Energy Act of 1946 legally ensures this secrecy (5). Area residents develop cancers, animals are deformed, and few suspect that the large, government-affiliated plant that employs so many people could be the source of harm. As Iversen tells her boyfriend Mark, “No one talks about it” (147).
The smoke from the Mother’s Day Fire of 1969 signals the dangers of Rocky Flats to the local population. Over the following two decades, Rocky Flats officials maintain that the plant is safe for both its workers and the public, despite a growing body of evidence to the contrary. Even the Department of Energy acknowledges the plant’s problems: “The DOE may admit internally that the plant is a mess, but they want to keep that information to themselves and put on a good face” (179-80). Exposing the plant’s secrets challenges its productivity, hence its financial success.
A worker who testifies against Rocky Flats in the grand jury trial, Jacque Brever, is shocked to hear a supervisor warn against speaking with the FBI during the raid: “‘Whistle-blowers,’ he says, ‘will be dealt with severely and completely’” (226). Many of the secrets that come to light during the FBI raid and grand jury trial are classified, and the facilities are paved with concrete upon Rocky Flats’ official closure. These coverings block the plant from further scrutiny, and Iversen suggests that similar abuses might happen again in the nuclear industry since so few know the truth about Rocky Flats.
Iversen’s family also maintains a good face despite hidden troubles: “Nothing is ever said about dark or sad or upsetting events, and anything that involves liquor is definitely not discussed” (2). Her father’s alcoholism remains an open secret in the family, as her father's legal and financial problems become increasingly difficult to conceal. These secrets impose great costs upon every member of the family, as her siblings rebel and her mother strains under the weight of covering her husband’s struggles. Iversen’s observant nature and long afternoon talks with her mother turn Iversen into the family’s de facto secret-keeper, compelled to “hold down the fort” (74).
Moreover, no one knows that Iversen’s neck is broken following her father wrecking the car: “We never speak of the accident again. Silence is an easy habit for a family or a community. This is just for us to know. Eventually we’ll forget this ever happened” (110). Iversen concludes the text, however, by considering how both bodies and landscapes retain secrets, undermining human attempts to cover things up and keep the peace. The act of writing this memoir also exposes her family’s hidden story, showing her commitment to truth over maintaining appearances.
The Importance of Protest
As a young woman, Iversen resists the idea that Rocky Flats poses a danger to her community. She dismisses the protesters at the plant as “people with nothing better to do” (148) and fights with her boyfriend Mark when he claims that the plant has poisoned the environment. Years later, after working at the plant and learning its secrets from both coworkers and an ABC Nightline report, Iversen develops deep fear and anger about the many cover-ups at Rocky Flats. She spends 12 years writing a book that critiques the nuclear industry and exposes Rocky Flats’ wrongdoing—a concerted act of protest and a dramatic reversal of her earlier views. In the Epilogue, she writes: “To speak out or to remain silent is the first and most crucial decision we can make” (344). She learned to use her writing talents for the greater good and to join the many people who resisted Rocky Flats’ activities.
During years of protests against Rocky Flats, activists like Pat McCormick, Pam Solo, Ann White, and Iversen’s sister Karma demonstrate at rallies, occupations, and prayer meetings. Although they risk arrest for trespassing and other charges, they persist; in fact, protester Patrick Malone enters police custody 10 times (155). Others, like Jim Stone and Jacque Brever, learn of Rocky Flats’ wrongdoing while working at the plant. Both speak out against unsafe practices such as the burning of plutonium in an incinerator, and both unceremoniously depart from Rocky Flats. Each of these characters proves a testament to the power of protest. As their movement grows, public scrutiny of the plant intensifies. Iversen’s detailed depiction of these characters also preserves their voices so that readers can heed their warnings.
Dr. Carl Johnson, director of the Jefferson County Board of Health from 1973 to 1981, foments a kind of rebellion against Rocky Flats as well. His studies find high levels of radioactive contaminants in the area around the plant, as well as statistically high rates of various cancers in local residents. The more Johnson exposes Rocky Flats’ activities, the more institutional pushback he receives. A fellow scientist, Ed Martell, calls Johnson “the only man in the Denver public health community who is concerned about public health” (170). Ousted from his position to protect the interests of real estate developers, Johnson dies without widespread recognition for his work. Iversen compares Johnson with the protagonist of the Ibsen play An Enemy of the People: “The strongest man in the world, Ibsen wrote, is the man who stands most alone” (216). The one-person protest, Iversen indicates, signals great fortitude and heroism, but the defiance comes at great cost.
The Body’s Memory
The title Full Body Burden refers to the amount of radioactive chemicals a human body can safely retain, according to the Department of Energy (DOE). Although the DOE sets this value at 0.5 micrograms of plutonium (178), some scientists argue that this amount is too high. In fact, “Many scientists believe there is no safe level of exposure to plutonium” (77). Regardless, the industry continues to place human bodies in production facilities like Rocky Flats, where they might develop serious, even fatal, illnesses such as cancer. Others, like Tamara Smith Meza and Iversen herself, unknowingly breathe the air and drink the water that the plant has contaminated. Iversen suspects their prolonged illnesses result from radiation exposure.
Iversen calls plutonium a “radioactive imp” (194), inflicting unpredictable and serious damage upon the human body, whether or not individuals know they have been exposed to it: “The body is an organ of memory, holding traces of all our experiences” (338). Those who live and work in and around Rocky Flats likely hold its radiation in their bodies—the evidence of Cold War buildup alive and well in unsuspecting Coloradans.
Furthermore, the body testifies of its personal struggles, triumphs, and traumas. In the book's final chapter, Iversen shares her own difficulties as she accounts for her scars. Her body remembers injuries from riding horses, as well as the prolonged effects of breaking her neck when her father crashes the family car. She considers her hearty Scandinavian heritage and the C-section scar from the birth of her first son. Throughout her life, she also notices the body of her father as it changes, from weight fluctuations to his distended belly to a heart condition that lands him in the hospital. Tracking the body’s memory, Iversen fulfills her role as “the family historian” (337), as her father says.
