They live in an ordinary middle-class house, eat dinner together and take long trips in the family car, but behind every white rose lies a black shadow. In the Iversen household, no one ever asks questions or challenges her father, and as Iversen grew up, she learned: "...what not to say, what topics are taboo and what secrets must remain secrets” (Iversen 11). In Full Body Burden, Iversen recounts numerous situations where she, her family, and the community were forced to remain silent. Iversen's father's alcohol addiction was very prominent from the beginning of the book and as the story continues it gets worse. Even as her father's alcohol addiction worsens, she says, "nothing is said in front of the children." We know not to talk about our father’s drinking” (Iversen 16). Iversen's mother and father believed that if you didn't say anything out loud, you didn't have to deal with what was happening. Growing up in this environment, Iversen and his siblings learned not to have opinions or confront issues, such as their father's alcoholism. Being different in one's outward appearance from one's neighbors was not acceptable. The children had to conform and hide behind their parents' silence. They thought that by doing this they were protecting the “normality” that was theirs.