Literary Analysis of The Hate U Give

On August 28, 2018, a former white Texas police officer, Roy Oliver was found guilty for shooting a 15 year old black boy, Jordan Edwards who was unarmed. In the book “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas, Starr Carter, a 16 year old black girl goes to a dominantly white middle school, Williamson and lives in a “ghetto” neighborhood, Garden Heights. After watching her childhood best friend, Khalil getting shot and killed by a white police officer, she struggles to find herself in the midst of darkness. When the grand jury decides that the officer shouldn’t be punished for his actions, she decided to finally stand up for herself and to the public. Thomas shows that accepting themselves even in judgemental circumstances can lead them to stand up for themselves and making an impact.

"The Hate U Give" - Literary Analysis Essay

In the story, Angie Thomas brings up that Starr wanted to keep her two lives and personalities separate especially after Khalil’s death. After witnessing his death, Starr didn’t want her friends at Williamson to know that she was the witness because she feared that she would be judged and stand out even more among her white classmates. “That’s when I realized Williamson is one world and Garden Heights is another, and I have to keep them separate.” But soon Starr realizes that she needed to accept that she doesn’t completely fit in Williamson or in Garden Heights. Later in the story, Kenya brought up the fact that Starr was ashamed of her family, her friends and the community at Garden Heights: “I was ashamed of Garden Heights and everything in it.” But Starr soon admits that she wasn’t anymore because the Khalil situation has really opened her up to see the fact that he was a big part of Garden Heights and their family. And being closed off from her classmates from Williamson made her push her friends away more since she was keeping a major point of her life a secret.

Throughout the story, the author also revealed the idea of Starr standing up for herself and having an impact on her society even if there were discouraging people along the way. One of Starr’s best friends, Hailey made a lot of racial comments about her and Maya. Starr first thought they were just small and immature jokes but they became worse and were racial and stereotypical statements about Khalil and how he is a “drug dealer”. This situation made Starr stand up for herself in front of Williamson and start a physical fight against Hailey. “He was a drug dealer and a gangbanger,” Hailey says. “Somebody was gonna kill him eventually.”(…) “I move Maya out of the way and slam my fist against the side of Hailey’s face.” This illustrates that Starr isn’t as closed up as she used to be and finally bringing out her “other” personality at Williamson. As the story went on, Starr’s older brother, Seven was diving Chris, DeVante and her to Garden Heights. They were stopped multiple times and soon his car ran out of gas. Starr was really angry and frustrated at this point because Khalil didn’t get the justice he deserved and she decided to join the group of people from Just Us Justice in Garden Heights to start a riot and protest. “My name is Starr and I am the one who saw what happened to Khalil,” I say into the bullhorn.(…)I turn to the cops. “I’m sick of this! Just like y’all think all of us are bad because of some people, we think the same about y’all.(…) His life mattered. Khalil mattered.” Starr’s personality has changed and evolved in a miraculous way. She isn’t the old closed up and “two personalities” Starr anymore. Because of Khalil’s murder, and Hailey, it made Starr realized that in fact her two words are connected and keeping them both away from each other has made every situation worse. Starr was able to make a big impact to a lot of people’s mindsets at the riot even if the police fought back and drove them away with violence.

When one considers accepting and standing up for themselves , it’s clear that it can help make a significant impression upon their community. Every child is taught to make important life decisions now and in the future. But as a society, most humans are having a stereotypical mindset among certain people preventing the important voices to be heard without any consequential action. Someone once said, “Stand up for what is right even if you stand alone. Stand up for truth regardless of who steps on it.”   

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