The Hate U Give Symbolism

“Khalil doesn't move. He doesn’t utter a word. He doesn't even look at me. His body stiffens, and he's gone. I hope he sees god.” (page 24) In Angie Thomas’s novel, The Hate U Give, the main character Starr Carter is forever changed when her friend Khalil dies. At the beginning of the novel, Starr Carter lives in two worlds, a poor neighborhood where she lives with her family and the fancy prep school Williamson she attends. The uneasy valence between her two worlds is shattered when she witnesses her childhood best friend Khalil gets killed at the hands of an officer. In The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas the author uses again and again and symbolism to show how justice reveals that people should speak up for what they believe in and what they

Which shows how each area thinks differently based on how they were raised and their perspective. One symbole Thomas uses in the novel is the song Thug Life (the hate you give little infants f---s everybody) written by Tupac. Which is what this book is about. When unarmed people lose their lives the hate they’ve been given screws everyone. You see it in the novel shown as anger and you see it in a form of riots. Which is seen throughout the book as it progresses. Khalil also talks about his perspective of the song when he’s in the car with Starr before they get pulled over. He says “What society gives us when we are little comes back and bites them later when we grow up and we wild out.” The meaning of the song also comes up later in the book by Starr's dad. For example, “But Mrs. Ofrah says this interview is the way I fight. When you fight, you put yourself out there, not caring who you hurt or if you’ll get hurt. So I throw one more blow, right at One-Fifteen. I’d ask him if he wished he shot me too.” (page 290) At this point in the novel Starr was tired of being scared to speak up for Khalil. After being reminded by her father that speaking up for others who can’t speak up for themselves is a privilege because she can tell her side of the story and show the world what happened was wrong. Throughout the story you can see that Starr is starting to gain more confidence in what she believes in. Then she remembers what Khalil said about the Song Thug Life and decides she should speak up about what happened so that she can help get Khalil justice and maybe influence what happens in the future with cases similar to hers. To show others that they can speak up as