Symbolism In The Hate U Give By Toni Thomas

Violence can become a common aspect of teenagers’ lives. Due to their coming of age, they start to get curious and adventurous about life. However, this does not mean that it is okay to participate in or get involved in this type of violence. Many of us have been thrown into some kind of violence or seen a violent situation. Therefore, the book The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas and the short story On The Sidewalk Bleeding by Evan Hunter have a similar theme of violence. Firstly, violence is shown through symbolism in both stories. It is shown in the novel The Hate U Give that Khalil was killed by a police officer because he was reaching out for a hairbrush to comb his hair when suddenly the officer shot him three times, thinking it was a weapon

Both stories, The Hate U Give and On The Sidewalk Bleeding, have a common theme of violence, as it is shown through antagonists in the stories, also referred to as gang members. In The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, King, who is the main antagonist and the king of a gang, shows violence by physically assaulting Maverick for not agreeing to help him with his violent activities, such as crime and selling drugs. In chapter 20, King physically assaults Maverick, Starr’s father, for refusing to involve himself in King’s criminal activities. King violently beats and threatens Maverick, attempting to take control over him through fear and intimidation. However, Maverick, Starr’s father, still refuses to do such bad things because he wants to protect his family. As well as raise his children right and teach them the good from the bad and the evil. Likewise, violence is shown through antagonists in the story On The Sidewalk Bleeding by Evan Hunter. Andy was also a 16-year-old boy who was killed because of violence. Early in the story, it is narrated that Andy was fighting with the Guardians, another gang group. As he was on his way to buy cigars from a nearby convenience store, a group of Guardians came up to him and stabbed him near the ribs. While doing so, they yelled out, "That’s what you get Royal!" (Hunter 1). This shows the violence and hatred they feel towards the Royals. They did not specifically want to kill anyone

Both stories, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas and On The Sidewalk Bleeding by Evan Hunter, share a similar theme of violence, specifically towards teenagers’. Violence is shown in both stories through authorities or people of power. Violence is shown through authorities in The Hate U Give when Starr tries to find justice for Khalil by talking to lawyers, investigators, and police officers. Starr spent over 7 months talking to them about what happened and trying to prove that Khalil did not have any sort of weapon in his hand or in the car. However, they were not interested in finding out the truth but rather tried to put the blame on Khalil, saying he was a drug dealer. After all that, the decision was made not to arrest the officer who killed Khalil. Therefore, this led to injustice and made the black community angry and disappointed. This resulted in protests that were supposed to be gentle. However, it has turned into violence. Stores were broken down, fires were started, and guns were fired at anyone. Comparably, this situation of violence and authorities is shown in the story On The Sidewalk Bleeding by Evan Hunter. Violence is shown through authorities, which in this book are police officers. After Andy lay there on the sidewalk, dying slowly for hours, Laura finally found him. But it was too late, and Andy was already dead. She runs through the allies, asking for help, and brings an officer. However, the