Starr Carter is the main character in the book and movie The Hate U Give, from 2017 written by Angie Thomas. Starr is a sixteen-year-old high school student who spends her life divided between the lower-class, primarily black neighborhood of Garden Heights and Williamson Prep, a wealthy, primarily white school. Starr constantly feels pulled between two versions of herself: “Williamson Starr” and “Garden Heights Starr”. Throughout these different environments, Starr changes the way she looks, language, and behavior.
At Williamson Prep they have to wear uniforms, which is quite different from Garden Heights, where they can use whatever they want. Since they have to wear uniforms at Williamson Prep they can’t show their style. Starr has this stereotypical way of dressing up, a typical white girl at de school: the uniform and high ponytail (as you can see in the picture). She always uses her Jordans, the shoes that earn her style points in both places, and they even let her personality shine through. At Garden Heights, we see the version of Starr that represents her the most. Starr never wears the same clothes or the high ponytail at Garden Heights. She often wears oversized hoodies and low ponytails. The clothes she wears show largely the class differences between Williamson Prep and Garden Heights.
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As soon as Starr leaves Garden Heights for Williamson Prep, her speech patterns change immediately. “I gotta keep it separate,” she says: “That means flipping the switch in my brain”. The fear of being marked as the “ghetto” makes her talk and answer with mild-mannered and nonconfrontational sentences. She never speaks out, and her opinion is often hidden away. This is because of her mildly racist friend, but this changes throughout the movie. In Garden Heights, Starr’s speech patterns are more like her personality, she uses more slang and abbreviations to express herself. She is also surrounded by people she loves, like her friends and family. An example of Starr version 1, is the scene where she talks about what THUG LIFE (The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everyone) means. She is not afraid to give her opinion and express her feelings. The speech patterns Starr uses in Garden Heights have a huge impact on her personality but at Williamson Prep this side of her changes.
At Williamson Prep and Garden Heights, we get to know the two versions of Starr’s behavior. She is afraid to act “black” in front of the other students because most of them are white. This version of Starr doesn’t speak too loud to attract too much attention to herself. An example of this is when some students look at her with this death glance, while she kisses her boyfriend. She chooses to not react, because of the fear of attracting attention. To approximately be surrounded by white people, impacts Starr’s behavior. We get an image of her being “whitewashed”. This means that she tries to adapt to her place in such a different environment. At Garden Heights, the behavior switches to a more personal style. Where she can be herself, without all the drama that comes to place at the school. Her attitude changes from a polite and shy one to a more open and comfortable personality. In addition, Starr Throughout the movie we can see Starr vary between two different personalities, which affects her behavior.
Briefly summarized, Starr’s personalities at Williamson Prep and Garden Heights change every time she arrives at each place. The reason why Starr does this is because of the fear of not being accepted as who she is. By changing clothes, hairstyle, speech patterns, and behavior she feels more comfortable and safe. Throughout the movie these two versions of Starr, in some way gather together. She finds her place between both versions Williamson Prep and Garden Heights.
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