Analytical Essay Prompts for What the Eyes Don’t See

Use these prompts to write a focused literary analysis of Mona Hanna-Attisha’s What the Eyes Don’t See. Each prompt includes why it matters, a defensible thesis direction, and evidence leads drawn from specific chapters. Internal links connect to related themes and characters.

1. From White Coat to Activist: Mona’s Transformation

Prompt: How does Mona Hanna-Attisha’s character change from the beginning of the crisis to the moments after the press conference? What drives that change?

• Why it matters: The memoir’s central arc is Mona’s evolution from a trusting pediatrician who believed “officials in white lab coats” ensured safety to a public advocate who challenges the state. Tracing this shift reveals the personal cost of activism and the loss of institutional faith.
• Sample thesis direction: Mona’s journey from complacent doctor to whistleblower is propelled not by a single revelation but by cumulative betrayals—first by MDEQ, then by the health department, and finally by the mayor—pushing her to trade the security of her “white coat” for the vulnerability of public advocacy.
• Evidence leads:
  • Chapter 1: Mona reassures a mother the water is safe based on official statements; the phrase “the eyes don’t see what the mind doesn’t know” introduces her initial ignorance.
  • Chapter 5: Reading the EPA memo and the D.C. crisis account shatters her trust in authorities.
  • Chapter 18: On the eve of the press conference, she lies awake fearing aeb (shame) if she fails, showing her internal conflict.
  • Chapter 19: Despite last‑minute pressure from the governor’s office and MSU, she presents her data, using a baby bottle of Flint tap water as a visual.
  • Chapter 20: After the state accuses her of “splicing and dicing” data, she suffers an emotional breakdown, yet her resolve eventually hardens.

2. The Root Cause: How Emergency Managers and Austerity Created the Crisis

Prompt: To what extent does Mona argue that the emergency‑manager law and austerity policies, rather than simple negligence, caused the Flint water disaster? Use causal analysis.

• Why it matters: The book insists that the crisis was not an accident but a foreseeable result of undemocratic governance and racialized budget cuts. Examining causality helps readers understand how policy choices translate into environmental racism.
• Sample thesis direction: Mona presents the emergency‑manager system and the austerity it enforced as the primary cause of the water switch, arguing that stripping Flint of elected representation removed the only check on cost‑cutting decisions that would have been rejected by a democratic process.
• Evidence leads:
  • Chapter 1: Half of Michigan’s African‑American citizens were under an EM; Flint’s EM‑ordered budget cuts drove the switch from Detroit water to the Flint River.
  • Chapter 9: The Sit‑Down Strike and the Grand Bargain set a precedent for labor‑management cooperation, but deindustrialization and the EM law later dismantled community power.
  • Chapter 23: FOIA requests reveal that state officials provided bottled water to their own employees while publicly insisting the tap water was safe.
  • Chapter 25: Mona explicitly identifies “extreme austerity and the emergency manager law” as root causes in the aftermath.

3. The Friendship That Cracked the Conspiracy: Elin and Mona

Prompt: Analyze the relationship between Mona and Elin Betanzo. How does their shared history enable them to break through institutional silence?

• Why it matters: The memoir shows that personal relationships can be a form of resistance. Mona’s trust in Elin—a fellow alumna of their high school environmental club—allows her to take the first step toward challenging authority.
• Sample thesis direction: The friendship between Mona and Elin functions as a catalyst for truth‑telling: their joint experience in the Madison Heights incinerator fight gives them a shared activist vocabulary, and Elin’s insider knowledge of EPA failures supplies the evidence Mona needs to act.
• Evidence leads:
  • Chapter 2: At the barbecue, Elin bluntly tells Mona the water is not safe, planting the first seed of doubt.
  • Chapter 3: Elin reveals the leaked EPA memo and explains the D.C. water crisis, overcoming Mona’s professional caution.
  • Chapter 5: Elin sends Mona a detailed email with links to reports, guiding her through the science.
  • Chapter 12: Over texts, they finish each other’s sentences in “a mash‑up of guilt and fury.”
  • Chapter 25: Mona and Elin reflect on their sense of purpose after the crisis is acknowledged.

4. Before and After the Press Conference: Contrasting Scenes of Power

Prompt: Compare the scene in Chapter 1 where Mona reassures a mother about tap water with the press‑conference scene in Chapter 19. How do these contrasting moments illustrate the book’s arc?

• Why it matters: These two scenes bookend Mona’s journey from ignorance to knowledge. Juxtaposing them highlights the transformation in her authority, her relationship with officialdom, and her willingness to speak truth to power.
• Sample thesis direction: The shift from the quiet clinic encounter to the public press conference mirrors the book’s movement from individual trust in institutions to collective demands for accountability, with Mona’s white coat replaced by the baby bottle as her emblem.
• Evidence leads:
  • Chapter 1: Mona tells Grace the water is safe; she trusts the agencies and has no data.
  • Chapter 19: Mona presents her blood‑lead study to 100 people; the baby bottle visual challenges the state’s narrative.
  • Chapter 1 uses internal monologue; Chapter 19 uses dialogue and media coverage to show public pressure.
  • Between the scenes, Mona experiences the state’s silence (Chapter 8), the meeting with the mayor (Chapter 17), and the emotional cost of doubt.

5. Environmental Injustice as a System: Race, Place, and Policy

Prompt: How does Mona develop the theme of environmental injustice throughout the memoir? What evidence links the crisis to racism?

• Why it matters: The book argues that Flint’s poisoning was not a random disaster but a predictable outcome of systemic racism. Exploring this theme helps students connect the water crisis to broader patterns of environmental discrimination.
• Sample thesis direction: Mona frames environmental injustice as the product of a three‑tiered system: racialized housing policies (blockbusting, white flight), the imposition of emergency managers on mostly black cities, and the state’s disregard for residents’ complaints—all of which converge in the decision to switch water sources without corrosion control.
• Evidence leads:
  • Chapter 9: Details the 1936‑37 Sit‑Down Strike, housing covenants, and the legacy of the Sweet trial.
  • Chapter 14: Dr. Reynolds introduces the term “environmental injustice”; Mona recalls her studies with Bunyan Bryant.
  • Chapter 20: The state’s spokespeople dismiss Mona’s findings; the city’s overwhelmingly black population is contrasted with the mostly white state officials.
  • Chapter 25: The Five Guys task force report explicitly links the crisis to racism.

6. The Baby Bottle as Symbol: From Abstract Data to Tangible Harm

Prompt: Analyze the symbol of the baby bottle filled with Flint tap water at the press conference. What does it represent, and how does it function rhetorically?

• Why it matters: Symbols condense complex ideas. The bottle makes the invisible crisis visible, transforming statistics into a concrete, emotional object that appeals to mothers, journalists, and officials.
• Sample thesis direction: The baby bottle operates as a counter‑symbol to the “white coat” and the mayor’s televised glass of water: it refuses the official narrative of safety and instead forces the audience to see lead as something that enters a child’s body, making the harm undeniable.
• Evidence leads:
  • Chapter 1: Mayor Walling drinks a glass of Flint River water on TV, a symbol of official assurance.
  • Chapter 18: Mona asks for a can of baby formula to use as a visual prop, thinking of the formula‑fed infants most at risk.
  • Chapter 19: The bottle of brown tap water is placed beside the podium; it is described as a “powerful visual.”
  • Chapter 10: Jenny’s fear about passing lead through breast milk personalizes the threat.
  • The bottle reappears in media coverage; Mona’s team later secures ready‑to‑feed formula (Chapter 23).

7. Interwoven Timelines: Why the Iraqi Family History Is Not a Digression

Prompt: The memoir moves between the 2015‑2016 water crisis and flashbacks to Mona’s family history in Iraq. How does this dual structure serve the book’s argument?

• Why it matters: Structural choices reveal a writer’s priorities. Mona’s decision to embed her family’s exile story within the crisis narrative insists that personal heritage informs public activism.
• Sample thesis direction: By interweaving the Iraqi diaspora story with the Flint crisis, Mona argues that resilience is an inherited practice: her grandfather Haji’s humanism, her father’s anti‑Saddam activism, and the trauma of Halabja all prepare her to fight for Flint’s children.
• Evidence leads:
  • Prologue: Mona’s name means “hope”; her childhood accident and recovery foreshadow her role as a healer in crisis.
  • Chapter 4: Haji’s story of a fire and his humanist values directly inspire Mona’s activism; the chapter ends with her telling her daughters a bedtime story about him.
  • Chapter 16: Jidu’s shortwave radio activism and the Halabja chemical attack (Mona saw a photo of a dead infant) link political violence to environmental poisoning.
  • Epilogue: The fable of Haji and the birds shows how family stories of collective action become a force for uplift.

8. The Lorax Epigraph: Foreshadowing and Moral Urgency

Prompt: Why does Mona choose a quotation from Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax as her epigraph, and how does it foreshadow the book’s themes and outcome?

• Why it matters: Epigraphs set the interpretive frame. The Lorax’s plea for someone to “care a whole awful lot” echoes through every chapter, and the fable of the Once‑ler parallels the state‑corporate indifference Mona confronts.
• Sample thesis direction: The epigraph functions as a moral compass: it predicts that only a caring individual—like the Lorax—can expose the destruction, and the book itself becomes the “someone” who cares, proving that activism can still turn the tide.
• Evidence leads:
  • Chapter 1: Mona’s phrase “the eyes don’t see what the mind doesn’t know” echoes the epigraph’s call for awareness.
  • Chapter 3: Mona and Elin’s high school environmental club shut down the Madison Heights incinerator—a real‑world version of the Lorax’s action.
  • Chapter 20: When Mona doubts herself, the epigraph’s warning resurfaces implicitly; she finds strength in the children she treats.
  • Epilogue: The fable of Haji and the birds depicts collective caring that literally lifts a fallen person, mirroring the Lorax’s theme of community responsibility.

9. The D.C. Water Crisis as a Template: Foreshadowing and Parallel

Prompt: How does the repeated reference to the D.C. water crisis (1999‑2004) serve as both foreshadowing and a cautionary tale for Mona’s actions?

• Why it matters: The D.C. case shows that lead poisoning can be hidden by manipulating testing and denial. Mona uses this precedent to anticipate the state’s tactics and to justify her own aggressive pursuit of evidence.
• Sample thesis direction: Mona presents the D.C. crisis as a dark prophecy for Flint: the same pattern of chloramine switch, cover‑up, and scientific suppression repeats, but with a key difference—Mona and Elin have learned from D.C.’s mistakes and demand blood‑level data instead of waiting for water tests.
• Evidence leads:
  • Chapter 3: Elin explains D.C. as the “worst‑case scenario”; no one was punished, and scientists couldn’t get health data.
  • Chapter 5: Mona reads about D.C. while preparing; the parallels terrify her.
  • Chapter 15: Marc Edwards shares his D.C. experience with Mona, advising her on how to handle the political pushback.
  • Chapter 23: State officials later employed D.C.‑style data manipulation (pre‑flushing, discarding high results).
  • The D.C. crisis also foreshadows the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak that was hidden for nine months.

10. “Aeb” and the Emotional Toll: How Shame and Family Honor Drive the Fight

Prompt: Explore the concept of aeb (shame) in Chapter 18. How does Mona’s fear of public shame motivate her, and how does it intersect with her family’s legacy?

• Why it matters: The memoir is as much an emotional document as a factual one. Understanding aeb reveals the personal stakes for Mona and the cultural framework that shapes her response to the crisis.
• Sample thesis direction: Mona redefines aeb from a fear of failure into a code of moral accountability: failing to speak for Flint’s children would bring greater shame than any professional or cultural dishonor, and her father’s exile history has already taught her that silence is the true disgrace.
• Evidence leads:
  • Prologue: The car crash story—Mona stays silent out of fear, but her mother advocates for her.
  • Chapter 4: Haji’s humanism rejects organized religion but insists on “doing the right thing, even when it’s difficult.”
  • Chapter 18: The night before the press conference, Mona lies awake obsessing over aeb and the family’s Christmas letters that documented Iraq’s suffering.
  • Chapter 20: After the state’s attack, Mona breaks down crying, feeling she has let everyone down.
  • Chapter 25: Mona chooses restorative justice over revenge, accepting Snyder’s apology for the sake of Flint kids—a move that reflects her grandfather’s values.

11. The Flint Child Health and Development Fund: Hope as a Structural Response

Prompt: Analyze the book’s closing prescription for hope. How does Mona propose to counteract the trauma of lead poisoning, and what role does the Flint Child Health and Development Fund play in that vision?

• Why it matters: The ending moves from crisis to recovery. Examining hope as a concrete, funded plan rather than a vague sentiment shows how the book answers the despair it evokes.
• Sample thesis direction: Mona transforms hope from an individual emotion into a policy platform by establishing the Flint Child Health and Development Fund, which finances home visiting, nutrition, literacy, and mental health—programs that attack the root effects of toxic stress and build resilience.
• Evidence leads:
  • Chapter 21: Mona, Kirk, and Jamie draft a “list of demands” focusing on wrap‑around services for kids.
  • Chapter 24: Mona proposes the fund with a $100 million goal; it is described as a long‑term commitment.
  • Chapter 26: Mona tells Grace that hope requires both personal determination and “structural investment”; Grace gets a job at the new childcare center.
  • Epilogue: The bird fable suggests that collective action—like the fund—can “lift” a community.
  • Chapter 31 (Flint Child Health and Development Fund): The appendix details the fund’s evidence‑based programs and the author’s donation of book proceeds.

12. The Epilogue’s Fable: How Storytelling Shapes Understanding

Prompt: The book ends with the fable of Haji and the birds, told differently by each family member. What does this final chapter reveal about the memoir’s purpose and method?

• Why it matters: The epilogue returns to the theme of narrative. By showing that the same story can be told in many ways, Mona argues that the Flint crisis itself has multiple truths—and that her version is just one of 100,000 stories.
• Sample thesis direction: The epilogue uses the bird fable to model a restorative epistemology: instead of seeking a single definitive truth, the book invites readers to see that ethical storytelling—like Haji’s fable—must be retold with care, because how we tell the story shapes whether we act on it.
• Evidence leads:
  • Prologue: Mona frames the book as “only my story, told from my narrow perspective.”
  • Chapter 1: The epigraph from The Lorax also stresses that someone must “care a whole awful lot” to make things better.
  • Chapter 4: The bedtime story of Haji establishes storytelling as a way to pass on values.
  • Epilogue: Each family member changes the fable to reflect their own values; Mona feels her grandfather’s presence “as a force of uplift, similar to the birds.”
  • The fable’s image of hundreds of birds carrying a fallen man directly mirrors the collective resistance of Flint parents, activists, and health workers.

Explore these prompts with close attention to the text’s use of evidence from the blood-lead study, the theme of government betrayal, and the resilience of Flint’s community. For character analysis, see the profiles of Mona Hanna-Attisha and Elin Betanzo. Return to the main book page or browse Questions and Answers.