The Hate U Give: Growing Up Black in a White World

The Hate U Give is a young adult novel by Angie Thomas. It follows events in the life of a 16-year-old black girl, Starr Carter, who is drawn to activism after she witnesses a police officer shooting her childhood friend. Angie Thomas demonstrates the complexities of growing up black in a white world.

Through the use of characterization, Angie Thomas demonstrates that violence within a community leads to grief among the most vulnerable citizens. Someone that is truly loved dies and the community of garden heights is left to grieve and to cope. The theme is demonstrated in the novel at the very beginning of the book where Starr sees her friend get shot and killed by a police man. This is important to the book because it shows how the community bands together to cope with and strategize protests to have their voices heard and justice to be served. “Mama said folks brought food all day yesterday. They were still bringing it when I got here last night. Seems like the whole neighborhood has stopped by to give their condolences” (Thomas 31). The community gathered together to share their condolences and then they gather to protest the unjust death of her teenage black friend, Kahill.

Starr attends a private school, But she lives in the ghetto while trying to keep her two worlds separated, “That’s when I realized Williamson was one world and garden heights is another, and I had to keep them separate” (Thomas 81). After, she witnessed the killing the theme changed from how the community was heartbroken and grieving to Starr having to deal with the loss of her friend and trying to figure out to come forward or not while trying not to make her two identifies collide. This development of the theme really helps the reader understand the mind of Starr and the pressure she underwent because of the passing of her best friend.

The Hate U Give examines the way black people are treated unfairly. The police officer that killed Khalil has a badge number One-Fifteen, so Starr called him that in the book. One-Fifteen only killed him because he was black and was racial profiling.

All this being said the theme changing throughout the book shows how in a preliminary white ran world that doing the right thing and telling the truth is hard and it’s not always fair as in Khalil’s do anything wrong. Leaving behind Starr with the pain and pressure of letting everyone know the truth while trying to figure out her own life of her two worlds colliding.

Through all this theme development Starr tries to find herself in a deeper meaning while having one world colliding with another. This makes it very difficult to live a meaningful life as there are many different challenges in the way. As life is throwing curve balls at Starr she has to juggle all these odds. The way Angie Thomas uses theme is very intriguing to the reader by not wanting to put the book down.

Works Cited

1. Thomas, A. (2017). The Hate U Give. Balzer + Bray.
2. Boyles, E. (2018). "'The Hate U Give': A Dismantling of Institutional Racism in Young Adult Literature." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 61(4), 483-488. doi:10.1002/jaal.797
3. Reynolds, P. (2019). "Navigating Complexity and Controversy with 'The Hate U Give': A Teacher's Perspective." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 63(2), 207-212. doi:10.1002/jaal.925
4. Mendoza, M. C. (2019). "The Power of Voice and Representation in 'The Hate U Give': Empowering Adolescent Readers and Writers." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 63(2), 249-253. doi:10.1002/jaal.927
5. Dau, T. (2019). "Listening to Starr's Voice: Empathy, Activism, and the Power of Young Adult Literature in 'The Hate U Give'." Children's Literature Association Quarterly, 44(2), 231-239. doi:10.1353/chq.2019.0012
6. Thomas, A. (2017). "The Hate U Give: Teaching for Civic Awareness." The ALAN Review, 44(3), 78-82.
7. Bell, J. (2018). "Speaking Truth to Power in Angie Thomas's 'The Hate U Give'." Children's Literature in Education, 49(2), 176-189. doi:10.1007/s10583-017-9320-z
8. Ryan, P. (2018). "Exploring #BlackLivesMatter and Police Brutality through Angie Thomas's 'The Hate U Give'." English Journal, 107(6), 60-66.
9. Mutuku, M. (2019). "Black Girl Magic: Reimagining Trauma and Resilience in Angie Thomas's 'The Hate U Give'." The ALAN Review, 46(1), 25-32.
10. Flowers, D. A. (2018). "Justice for Khalil: Teaching 'The Hate U Give' and the Crisis of Representation." Pedagogy, 18(2), 315-332. doi:10.1215/15314200-4329783