I'm not sure if I agree with this. It would be interesting to know if that boy has watched horror films. Is he a Quentin Tarantino fan? His movies are seriously disturbing. I understand people may process visual information differently than written information as well, but my gut feeling in this case is this white family is full of shit. The mom is pursuing a career in conservative politics. Thinking back to my days in high school 30 years ago, most high school boys were into things like horror movies and trying to get into girls' pants, with not much care about how whatever trauma they inflicted on the girls. This kid was a senior. That's nearly college age, and Beloved is perfectly acceptable in a college setting. I think we tend to coddle young white men in this culture and let them get away with a lot.