The Hate U Give By Angie Thomas

Practically everyone in the story has a hidden agenda for his or her actions. The protagonist, a 22-year-old named Helga, was a teacher at an institute of higher learning called Naxos where the true agenda was not education but instead was teaching Blacks their accepted status in life—lower than that of Whites. She became convinced that she needed to leave Naxos after hearing a speech from a visiting white preacher whose remarks she found offensive. The preacher stated that if everyone acted like those from Naxos “there would be no race problem, because Naxos Negros knew what was expected of them” because they “knew enough to stay in their places” (Larsen 1724). At the beginning of the story, the reader would feel sympathy towards the workers at Naxos, who truly believed they were preparing the students for better lives and sympathy for Helga who tried to convince the new principle, Dr. Anderson, as to the true state of affairs. Helga failed to realize, however, that Dr. Anderson was aware of the situation at Naxos but felt that for change to occur there needed to be “more people like you, people with a sense of values, and proportion, an appreciation of the rarer things of life” (Larsen 1735). Helga mistakenly became offended at Dr. Anderson’s compliment by calling her “a lady” with “dignity and breeding” because of her belief that being able to trace one’s ancestry was more important that one’s actions (Larsen 1735).

Angie Thomas’ novel The Hate U Give is the story of a teenage girl facing racism in the world around her. Starr Carter lives in Garden Heights, a neighborhood filled with gangs, when one of her best friends Khalil is shot by the police, she is quick to know he had been killed because of the racism that exists in our world. Throughout the novel, Starr is constantly trying to show the world why Khalil died in order to get justice for his death. She does not believe he deserved to die or the cop who shot Khalil deserves to walk free of the crime he committed. Through different characters, the author is able to convey the message of one should not form opinions on someone or something based on stereotypes. Throughout the novel, some characters struggle with judging people before they know their past. Angie Thomas is able to get this across to readers not only through Starr, but also characters such as her father Maverick, her friends from school, and even Officer Cruise, the officer who killed Khalil.

Stereotyping creates assumptions which lead to segregation issues. Ana is a character who lives in an apartment complex next to the vacant lot that eventually becomes the community garden. Ana creates an assumption about Kim that symbolizes how Cleveland is a ghetto place to live. In the book, Ana states, “ Drugs most likely, or money, or a gun.” This text evidence symbolizes how Ana is stereotyping the victim, Kim, by stating that Cleveland’s a sketchy place filled with suspicious people. In society, our own police officers make terrible

In the essay, Shelby gives emotional notification that when a black person achieve higher class than the others he will be viewed as different and they will look at him as if he had betrayed the race. The author shows that black people were stereotyped as lazy and that they didn’t care and they try to get away from such stereotype, but if they do that and go to higher class other blacks will think that they have betrayed the race so they are caught in this circle. Shelby also try to show, by using pathos, that black people are all in the same boat and they all have to do the same thing to be accepted by other blacks so when one become different by achieving higher class it will be hard for them to be accepted by black people. Shelby is trying to show that people will not only use colors to distinct others, but their class and achievement as

A major turning point in Anne’s life was when she heard of the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till, who had allegedly whistled at a White woman. She was tremendously bothered by the murder and was unable to sleep or work for days. She realizes that she has been greatly unaware of the racial inequality and violence going on around her. When she was younger, she struggled to figure out the difference between the races and she gains no more insight or understanding of why there was such inequality, as she grew older. This causes her to wonder if there any true differences between Blacks and Whites, other than the fact that the Whites typically employed the Blacks. She now fears being murdered simply for being Black.

It proves that a subconscious mental subjugation of blacks and other people of color continue to exist and manifest in the form of overt racism. As much as Americans insist that “the playing field [between whites and blacks] is now level”, and America as a country has “purged itself of overt racist attitudes and behaviors”, whites still enjoy a lifestyle that is more comfortable and privileged than blacks (Gallagher 2003:25). Cramblett claims that she fears living in a white and racially intolerant family will have serious effects on her daughter’s upbringing. She is also anxious of the kind of life her daughter will experience going to an all white school. These fears and her inexperience with African American background and culture are stressful enough for her to launch a lawsuit suing for pain and emotional

After reading The Hate U Give, my eyes were opened to the struggles that people face in “ghettos”. Before reading this book, I never thought how awful it can be to be stuck there and not be a part of the gangs, drugs, and crime. Starr is stuck in Garden Heights even though she frowns upon all of the shady dealings that occur around her. I know many people that look at residents of not-so-nice neighborhoods and automatically assume that they are just another gangbanging “hood rat” (a term I’m heard a lot). I know many people who do not act and despise people that act in such a manner and this book showed me how they deal with these stereotypes put on them.

In The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, Starr Carter goes through a tragic event of losing her best friend, Khalil, during a routine police stop that shifts into murder. Starr has to deal with this event while attending the predominantly white high school, Williamson Prep, and living in her “ghetto” neighborhood, Garden Heights. Keeping her lives separate isn’t the hardest thing she has to do, it is using her voice to make Khalil’s life matters. After he is shot by Officer One-Fifteen, a movement begins to prove that all lives matter, no matter the race. In The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas challenges stereotypes through race by displaying Starr’s attitude throughout the entire trials of her life and Khalil’s death.

Race plays a large role in who and how we define ourselves. The question time and time again asked is who hold the key in deciding who do someone allow to define along with the limitations of such assumptions us and can the limitations how society views us hold the black individual(s) back. In this response I will focus on the idea of “Racism and its effects on individual experience”. Throughout the novel Wright tries to come to terms with the idea to come to terms with individual identity, conformity/rebellion, and revaluation of the self.

Throughout the story the narrators tone is very insecure. “I buried my head in her lap and blurted out: 'Mother, mother, tell me, am I a nigger?'" (Johnson 798) The narrator first questions his racial identity while reveling some hypocrisy after realizing that he mocked another child for being African American. Learning that neither he nor his mother are considered white. It opens a door for the Narrator, a door of confusion and ideals that mixed and prodded its way into a unique mind set. "He is forced to take his outlook on all things, not from the viewpoint of a citizen, or a man, or even a human being, but from the viewpoint of a colored man." Knowing the struggles of both racial sides he still felt the oppression and restraints that bound him to African Americans where as he had the ability to pass as a white

For this book the most important character would be either, Valerie or Nick. Without nick there would have been no shooting and without Valerie there

Race and racism are two of the most discussed topics in the book “A Hope in the Unseen”. When Cedric Jennings went to the MIT program during the summer, he was seen as the only “ghetto” student among the other minority students going through the same experience has him. This was mainly because of his ethnicity and his personal background. While he was at Brown University, he was having trouble with his roommate, Rob, because they “didn’t have anything in common,”. One of Cedric’s friends, Chiniqua, tries to encourage him to just hang out with the other black kids but he decides to broaden his horizons by interacting with other ethnicity groups.

She goes from a place of not having to worry about her identity, to the complete opposite of wanting to assimilate to a new identity. She relocates with her family from a gang infested neighborhood an east eighty street in L.A to Verdugo Street that had beautifully manicured lawns and streets without sidewalks. There she meets Melvin Bukeford, the boy who is despised by all the kids in the school because of his accent and his physical built and also for being the new kid. They share a bond between themselves as outsiders. Avery the black kid, an outsider looking in desperately trying to fit in, while Melvin an outsider, not because of race, but because of “his pointed ears…pointed nose and the freckles splattered all over his permanently pink face” (Johnson 2) How sad it must feel to be rejected by your race and to feel like you do not belong in your own

Many times we do not feel like we are an individual, but another piece of a giant puzzle of other pieces just like each other. This is similar the story of the narrator in Invisible Man who is a young African American Man living in 1930s American society. After he is expelled from school, the narrator is forced to go to the north in search of employment to work and then return to school. However, life is not as easy as he thought it was going to be and is forced to confront the reality that he is black and many different things come along with that. On his journey, it becomes clear to him that there are many stereotypes that are associated with his race, which then translates into racists ideologies that forces him to realize that all along he has been an invisible man, hidden amongst other people and forced to be just like all the other black people, rather than take on his own identity

The reader also learns more about social status and how people were ignorant and prejudice towards other people, especially African-Americans. In this passage, the literary elements diction, character development, and point of view develop the theme that innocence is a shield to racism and prejudice.