One lesson I learned while reading The Hate U Give was to never trust anything. You can trust yourself, but you can never trust what anyone else is saying. When Khalil got shot, for absolutely doing nothing, nobody trusted Starr’s word at first but herself. A theme I saw was racism, you see it from the beginning to the end of the book. From the cop shooting Khalil for “thinking” he was pulling out a gun, to him only getting suspended with pay, to Starr’s best friend throwing racial slurs at her other friends and towards Khalil when he’s already deceased. Both of these concepts relate to me because in 2018 there was a high number of hate crimes towards African Americans and police brutality. It hits a nerve to know that racism has never stopped and we think it won’t stop any time soon. This book really shows the real thoughts of a black person living in this world. Starr is the most important character in the story, hands down.
Her life got flipped upside down when her childhood friend gets shot right in front of her and she couldn’t do anything about it. Her life got more worse by the second and she still never gave up even though she was thinking about it. Starr made me realize that you can go through anything, no matter what it is, people still won’t understand your pain. The author built this story based on real events from her life, and it reflects how people actually feel right now in the year 2018. Starr played her role amazingly in the movie also, it’s like we felt her actual emotions and felt everything she was saying/doing. The way the story is set up makes Starr, Her Father, Mother, and Khalil the main important characters of The Hate U Give. The most significant event in the story had to be when Khalil got shot the night of the kickback.
That set everything off, it started the conflict, which let to the plot of the story. After that night, everything had to be done a certain way, and Starr had to rethink about everything. When Khalil got shot, Starr had to hide herself from everyone so she wouldn’t be the center of getting negative attention. Everything was good until Khalil got shot. Another significant event was when the policeman got fired for good, because if he didn’t that would’ve been wrong. Policeman nowadays get to do anything they want, and just get suspended WITH pay. I feel like if you’re supposed to be protect our country, you’re not supposed to be out here causing most of the crime we have today. The title of this book is very appropriate for what’s going on in this book. The Hate U Give can mean the hatred that white people have towards African Americans since the old days when slavery had just started. Or it can mean just the hate we give people everyday.
I think “The Hate U Give” is an amazing title because it explains so much. In the book itself, it’s so much hatred towards black people all around where they live. In the book, Starr’s dad gets arrested outside of HIS store but absolutely nothing. And Khalil gets shot because the police officer “thought” he was reaching for a gun. Then Starr’s best friend thinks Khalil was selling drugs or doing something illegal in the first place. Now, how can you tell me that’s not hate? That’s right, you can because the book gives you every reason as to why it is. The book was made to make us open our eyes. Not everything in the book had to do with police brutality or crime from higher power. It has crimes between us, each other, such as gang banging and drive by’s and anything else.
The author made us see that, we’re making them look at us as stupid and crazy individuals. But they don’t get that the pain from all the other years is still reflecting out of us. Some people just won’t understand what we’ve gone through unless they are us. For us to add on to the crime rate, is stupid of us. We’ve got petitions trying to slow down the crime rate in black dominated areas but we’re just adding on to it as a whole ethnicity group. Everyone’s eyes should’ve opened after reading the book or watching the book. A lesson learned by Starr’s dad is that he has to change how his appearance is when he approaches someone higher than him. When he got arrested, how he was looking and talking made the police feel threatened. People are so quick to judge you based off how you look or come across them, instead of getting to know you for real. Everything isn’t how it seems is also a lesson he learned. He didn’t know that the officer just wanted lead way from killing an innocent person. Starr’s father didn’t know that until he was sitting in the court room with his daughter battling a case he never thought would come.
The lessons he has learned have reflected his family a lot. He taught them what he learned, even being 30-40 years old he still helped his kids for when they got older. I admire the mother a lot actually. She’s always there for her children, even through the attitudes, the side remarks, the not wanting to talk all of that. She puts her all into taking care of her family and I love that. Throughout the story she knew what Starr was going through and she never did force her to talk about anything, she waited and waited until Starr was ready to open up about what happened that night. Her father too, I admire both of Starr’s parents to be honest. When there was a problem, Starr’s parents were there to give her advice and comfort her when she had nobody else to do it. They raised their kids right and made sure they were reflections of them. Starr’s mother is like my mother in multiple ways. They both care about their kids, comfort them in their time of need, and they’re just there for them at all times. It’s great to actually have a set of parents who are there for you at anytime no matter how much you put them through.
When I was 3, I had a favorite uncle by the name of tony. He was involved with selling drugs and gang banging but he was the best person for his nieces and nephews. One evening he was playing with me outside and a car pulled up in the driveway. I’m only three so I didn’t know they were arguing and one thing lead to another and my uncle got shot. My dad tried everything by taking him to the hospital trying to keep him alive but he just didn’t make it. I experienced what Starr did but just at a younger age. To his day, thinking about it still hurts me but I’ve had my years to at least focus on something more positive. Seeing death is not a funny site, or a positive one at that. But everything happens for a reason and eventually you’ll get over it and be a better person. IX) Some main events that happened was when the Garden Disciples and the Kinglords had a major argument and they separated where they were staying at. Other ones were when Khalil got shot, When Starr didn’t want to speak up because she was scared. The last one is when her best friend was being racist towards her one day during school.
All these events led up the main plot/conflict from the story. Almost every event that happened had a very important impact on the story’s concept itself. Every event makes the story come from a better aspect of people living in this world today. Me personally though, I think with the garden disciples and the king lords made the story line better. They started the conflict before Khalil was even shot and they kept it going until they came together for the sake of Starr. X) The main conflict which is Justice For Khalil is when they settled it the legal way, and when they finished everything in the court room. The conflict between the two different gangs got resolved when King and Starr’s father sat down and actually talked everything out. If we handled everything that way instead of turning to violence everything would be better on our end. Violence comes from black dominate places because we’re so stubborn and want things to go our way all the time. Instead of wondering why things still happen we need to put a stop to t ourselves.
If we all came together, every single race, almost everything would be fine. America just needs to get there act together before this generation has children of their own and the same stuff keeps happening over and over again. We can’t have that, and I think that’s what’s going to happen. Other novels I think The Hate U Give relate to are “Tyler Johnson Was Here” and “Dear Martin”. Both of these novels talk about racial profiling, and police brutality. They all reflect stories about how black individuals get accused or blamed for things they haven’t done. Other races have the set description for every black person they see and that’s a shame. I’m not going to lie, us black people also have our main ideals of white people and I don’t think anyone is letting up off of that. Everyone has been hurt by each race, and hold their grudges and make up every excuse to not dead what ever they’re mad at. As a young black women, already experienced trauma, I believe no one should have to go through that if they have the choice not to. I advise everyone who has watched or read The Hate U Give, to read the two books that relate to this one. They’ll actually benefit from them, and get a greater understand as to why we are how we are.
