The Hate U Give Literary Analysis

“Sometimes fiction is more easily understood than true events. Reality if often pathetic.” - Young-Ha Kim. Fiction is able to interpret reality in ways that are easier for people, especially the youth, to understand. It is able to show the truths of reality through a story that may not be 100% true, but is based on events that are. The novel, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, is based on the life of a teenage black girl who lives two seperate lives, one in the “hood” and the other at a preppy private school. When her best friend is unjustifiably murdered by a white cop, anarchy rises within the community. This novel interprets what occurs in everyday life for someone like the main character, Starr, who has to deal with gangs, police brutality,

Perspective is one of the important topics of the book, The Hate U Give. When the riots began and the murder was all over the news, Starr had to fight with the media on how she and the incident were perceived. The truth kept on getting twisted around to justify the cop’s actions instead of the truth behind the victim’s death. How lessons are perceived in literature are depended on how it is portrayed. When it is portrayed in a way for the youth to relate and understand, their perspectives of the components and the circumstances of those situations change to understandment. How we perceive things determines our thoughts and actions. When we learn the good and the bad circumstances of situations, like the riots and police violence in poor neighborhoods, we learn how we should best handle those situations when they come across our paths. In the book, The Hate U Give, there were two main point of views in the book on who was the victim: The armed cop, or the defenseless teenager. In the book, we, the readers, can observe both sides of the incident. The truth: defenseless teenager shot multiple times because he was black, or the victim was the armed white cop. By seeing the consequences of believing either side and how that affected the community, the readers are able to form their own thoughts on how it should be dealt with. This helps influence the youth’s thoughts on how they should handle a similar situation if they are provided with that opportunity. When the youth forms their own opinion on matters they have learned about, their decisions and actions that they take will affect our future. The youth is our future and what they are taught now affects our future. Fiction literature should be allowed to remain in the curriculum because it allows the readers to gain a new perspective