Summary Of The Hate U Give By Anna Thomas

Nic Stone, Clint Smith, and Angie Thomas are African-American authors who write from the perspective of black people, specifically black males in America. Each author talks about the day-to-day struggles that they face, such as going out into society and being harmed, sometimes even killed because the color of their skin poses a threat. The poems and books I chose to highlight these notions were, Dear Martin by Nic Stone, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, For The Boys Who Never Learned How to Swim, and What the Cicada Said To The Brown Boy both by author Clint Smith. Each work shares a common theme, police brutality seen amongst the African-American community.

In Dear Martin the book gives us the perspective of how black males cope with

Even police encounters that led to the demise of their friends. Justyce lost his best friend Manny to an off duty cop who felt provoked by the music being blasted from Manny’s car. These traumas faced were expressed through the literary elements symbolism and imagery. A major symbol presented in the beginning of the book would’ve been Justyce’s wrists after his encounter with Officer Castillo. After this incident, Justyce had a tendency of rubbing his wrists frequently in his debate classes. He only did this when the topic of the discussions involved inequality towards Black People making him feel very uneasy. The book states “ …yeah, there are no more “colored” water fountains, and it’s supposed to be illegal to discriminate, but if I can be forced to sit on the concrete in too-tight cuffs when I’ve done nothing wrong, it’s clear there’s an issue. That things aren’t as equal as folks say they are”. (pgs.12-13) Stone. Justyce frequently writes to Martin Luther King Jr. because he looks up to him. He thought that M.L.K really made a change to the world, but is continuously proved wrong. In this moment Justyce feels like M.L.K didn’t live up to his word, that all people should be treated equally, black people

This is shown through the literary elements of symbolism and conflict. The most important symbol presented in The Hate U Give is Officer Brian Cruises’ badge number One-fifteen. Starr memorized it when her and her childhood best friend Khalil were pulled over by him. One-fifteen was the name Starr stuck by when referring to Cruise after he fatally shot Khalil. In doing so, Starr saw One-Fifteen as a representation of police racism in the legal system. The nickname emphasizes the bigger point that Khalil's death was not caused just by One-fifteen, but by the way black people continue to be criminalized by the law in general. Conflict is another major literary element presented throughout the novel. The novel stated “I’ve seen it happen over and over again: a black person gets killed just for being black, and all hell breaks loose. I’ve tweeted RIP hashtags, reblogged pictures on Tumblr, and signed every petition out there. I always said that if I saw it happen to somebody, I would have the loudest voice, making sure the world knew what went down. Now I am that person, and I’m too afraid to speak”. (pg. 35) Stone. Here Starr talks about Khalil's death, and the lack of justice that he’s got, which sadly isn’t a very shocking