Essays on The Hate U Give

February 28, 2017

Angie Thomas

Novel

Bildungsroman; Young Adult Fiction

Starr Carter, Khalil Harris, Maverick “Big Mav” Carter, Lisa Carter, Uncle Carlos, Seven Carter, King, Chris, One-Fifteen, Hailey Grant, DeVAnte, Kenya

One-Fifteen, Maverick’s roses, Garden Heights

Race relations are a core theme of the novel, also the weaponizing of stereotypes against black people and the cyclical nature of racialized poverty

“What's the point of having a voice if you're gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn't be?”
“At an early age I learned that people make mistakes, and you have to decide if their mistakes are bigger than your love for them.”
“That's the problem. We let people say stuff, and they say it so much that it becomes okay to them and normal for us. What's the point of having a voice if you're gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn't be?”
“I can't change where I come from or what I've been through, so why should I be ashamed of what makes me, me?”
“Once you've seen how broken someone is it's like seeing them naked—you can't look at them the same anymore.”

This is Thomas' debut novel, based on a story she wrote in college in response to the police shooting of Oscar Grant.
In writing the novel, Thomas attempted to expand readers' understanding of the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as the difficulties black Americans face.
The themes of racism and the vulgar language of the narrative generated some controversy and made the book one of the hardest books of 2017, 2018, and 2020, according to the American Library Association.
In 2018, the book was made into a drama film directed by George Tillman Jr.