Introduction
In this thesis, I am going to analyze a book called 'THE HATE U GIVE', a 2017 novel written by Angi Tomas and published on February 28, 2017. This book is the auteur's first book which is expanded from a short story to a novel that Angie wrote in college, in reaction to the police shooting of Oscar Grant in 2009.
'The Hate U Give' is a novel that tackles the theme of police violence and racism. This novel is particularly aimed at adolescents. It tells the story of Starr, a young African American girl who lives in a poor black community neighborhood of a fictional city, and who successfully studies at a high school located in the suburban parts of the city. One evening Star witnesses the murder of her childhood friend Khalil by a white policeman. In order to overcome her anger and fight against the gangs and authorities who want to silence her, Starr decides to raise her head and find the strength to do justice to her friend Khalil.
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In order to get a general view of the book, I will try to lead the readers to my analysis by answering the following questions. Where and when the novel takes place? how is narrated? What is the main content and main characters etc?
I will use the book itself and some internet websites as a resource to accomplish my work.
The story takes place in a fictional town that has two different parts of the place. That means a poor African American neighborhood and the suburban one. The African American neighborhood called Garden Heights is a place that is not secure to live freely there because of the gangsters and drug dealers. While the suburban where the white and reach people do to live to have nothing of scare to live there. Here can I observe the difference between those parts of the fictional city. Starr's uncle the police officer lives in the suburban a place where Sekani's youngest brother of Starr is happy to go and ride his bike safely. Starr herself can walk around her uncle's house without fear of the gangsters. But on the other hand, I would like to mention that one morning Starr and her big brother Seven went to Rose Park of Garden Heights to play basketball but unfortunately, two teenage Garden Disciples attempt to rob them, so they didn't enjoy their morning as planned. In addition, their parent was so scared because of the riot at that moment causing Khalil's death. 'Daddy drives off. 'Done lost y'all minds,' he says. 'People rioting, damn near calling the National Guard here, and y'all wanna play ball.'
Poverty is the most known enemy of the Garden Heights society which leet most teenagers of the community to be drag-dealers, gangsters, and without goals. Through the novel, I observe that the black community complains about the white society. They mean that does not let them have the same opportunity in life as Tupac means of 'the THUG life.'
The relatives of Starr, her neighborhood, people such as the hairdresser next to her father's grocery store, or even the relatives of Khalil, his aunt and his grandmother in particular, all these people, are human beings above all. Yes, the ghetto is ugly, it's crumbling and it's not pretty to look around without blinking or lowering your head, but this place has life like all other places. They have their own culture and habits like helping each other and sharing together their happiness and sadness. I can see that when Starr's family was going to visit Kalil's grandmother after his death. But of course, it is a poor community, they have a problem with the white police officers, and the gangsters bother sometimes more than anyone.
Angie Thomas isn't just pointing the finger at the shady and indignant white police system. She also knows very well that, in her own reality, things are not quite right either. In the novel, this is very visible through the figure of King, King Lord of the gang of the same name. This mafia, this kind of obese and deceitful godfather sows terror in the district of Starr. And because of whom the father of Starr, Maveric, had to go to prison to be able to escape this vicious and endless cycle of horrors and misdeeds, this guy is just an ambient threat right now. He won't even hesitate to threaten Starr to silence her. Indeed, it is not only the whites who seek to cover up the Khalil affair.
The protagonist and narrator of the novel Starr, a teenager, with an extraordinary and intelligent personality, brilliant, and inspiring, who does not deny her origins but who would like to get out of this quagmire of drugs, and dirty money. Above all, Starr is fed up with people of color like her being reduced to being seen by whites as junkies, and prostitutes serving gangs of the worst kind, in short. This young girl is having a hard time integrating into her white school. Along with her half-brother, Seven, and another student named Ryan, boyfriend of
her Asian best friend Maya, Starr is the only black American in her high school. Every day, she has to hide who really is, and avoid using the language she uses more naturally at home so that she is not directly cataloged as 'the black of the ghetto on duty'. However, she shouldn't be too careful with her language otherwise she would be a completely different student.
Starr's childhood best friend, Khalil, is a young man who was shot and killed by a white cop (One-Fifty) while he was driving Starr home. After Khalil's death, the media immediately accused him of being a drug dealer with gang connections in order to make him responsible for his death, to which Starr strongly disagreed. Also, there were rumors in his neighborhood that Khalil was one.
While these negative reproaches question Khalil's character, Starr remembers that he was a nice boy. Starr wants to say too that the most important thing about Khalil was, that he was a teenager who led a normal life. Even after DeVante tells her that Khalil was dealing drugs to raise money to protect his drug-addict mother, she refused this nuanced portrait of Khalil to determine a negative stereotype about black youth.
Maverick stars father an outspoken and philosophical man who was in prison for he was King Lord. After those circumstances, he became an engaged father and husband who devotes himself to his family and neighborhood. 'Maverick's outlook on life draws inspiration from the Black Power Movement, in particular Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party. Often called the foil to Martin Luther King Jr.'s peaceful protests, Malcolm X preached black liberation by any means necessary. The Black Panther Party was a political movement founded in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. They also fought for black liberation and organized community programs. Maverick follows their lead by running a grocery store, helping to nourish the community' those Khalil and DeVante were an example of his engaged help to the community. https:www.sparknotes.comlitthe-hate-u-give character maverick-big-mav-carter (05162021)
Since Starr does her high school at Williamson she had a white friend Hailey, but they were not friends for real. Starr and her best friend Maya agreed that Heiley can't be their friend and she was racist against them. Heiley's silent argument with Starr over Tumblr, her fried chicken joke, and her question to Maya if the Chines eat a cat, were enough points to understand her insidious racism toward Starr. The only visible conflict in the novel was between those two teenage girls, Starr and Healey. Which influences the fight of each big brother at Williamson to protect their sisters.
Starr will decide to no longer be ashamed of who she is, a little bit of a woman between two worlds. A young black girl who lives in the reassuring and polished world of whites by day, Angie Thomas reminds us that we must see beyond our disgust and our hurtful and deeply cruel stereotypes, by making us see her reality. The world the author describes in The Hate U Give is her. That of her family and the people she loves. That of many African Americans. She knows exactly what she is talking about, it shows in every description, every word used, every slang word or a little familiar. With each page that turns, I live the events of this district and its surroundings from the inside and it takes guts to see all this happening before my eyes, with the during and after of the tragic death of Khalil. It makes my hair bristle, with emotion or anger, and I sometimes have the impression that my heart stops in the face of certain critical situations. It is a writing that is worth the detour, as it is realistic and captivates the reader at all times, arousing his emotions and especially his common sense.
Thomas by her choice of an African American dialect, and colloquial tone which I think makes the book more interesting for teenagers especially.
The story is narrated in the first person by providing comments and explaining her feeling Starr tells the story in a familial manner, which in somewhere she was privileging attention to speak formally. An example of that is here when Starr had an interview with the detective at the Polic station; 'I raised an eyebrow. 'Nah.' Dammit. Proper English. I sit up straight. I mean no, ma'am. We were talking when the fight occurred'.' (The Hate u Give, page. 98
'The Hate U Give' is a novel that tells the story of Starr, a young black girl who lives in a poor African American neighborhood of a fictional city. And who successfully studies at a high school located in the suburban parts of the city 'Williamson'.
One evening, a young African American boy has been killed by a white policeman. This boy was Starr's best childhood friend. that evening he was at a party he saw Starr and come over to her. When they were talking together suddenly a fight occurred at the party and they left together in his car. Kalil was on his way to drive Starr home when the policeman stopped him. Starr was the only whiteness the murder of her childhood friend Kalil by the white policeman.
Starr always wanted to keep secrets to protect herself against the crimes frequent in her neighborhood, but Khalil's death affected her a lot and through her actions, she will try to show how much Khalil's life has been removed for no reason. Starr refuses to stay silent this time around because she doesn't want the white cop who killed Khalil to get away so easily.
In order to overcome her anger and fight against the gangs and authorities who want to silence her, Starr will learn to raise her head and find the strength to do justice to her friend Kalil.
A true social phenomenon, 'The hate u give' prances at the top of teenage literature sales in the United States. More useful than a beautiful speech, this novel is inspired by real facts and joins by its theme the movement of Black Lives Matter created to denounce the corruption and racism of the police. Without complacency but with many nuances, the young African American author depicts a two-speed society where racism and the hatred that results from it are at the origin of crimes and slippages (THUG). From this gloomy picture emerges an astonishing solidarity between the people of the same neighborhood. Supported by those around her and her friends, Thomas is determined to restore the truth to a corrupt, divided, and violent world at all costs.
Conclusion
'THE HATE U GIVE' is a novel that tackles the theme of police violence and racism, this novel is particularly aimed at adolescents. We thoughts that we had overcome all these discriminating thoughts and nameless inhumanity and yet, this climate of racial tensions and which gives pride of place to the prejudices that destroy our society, and the lack of harmony that we can already maintain there is still there.
Throughout the novel, I felt the rage, injustice, incomprehension, pain, and sorrow, rumbling in me like a volcano about to erupt. Except that the flowing blade, it's Angie Thomas who makes it spring, through the character of Starr, this harmed young girl, who, at the height of her sixteen years, has already seen enough, be it violence, bloodshed, fear that comes to haunt you at night, and above all hatred.
By writing this novel, Angie Thomas invites us to use everything we have, our voice, our feet, our hands, our head, our entire body, to make our words resonate, what we think everything low and that should be yelled at to the whole world.
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