In the spring of 2017, the Summer Book Committee chose Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give for the high school summer reading. For those that need a refresher on the content of the book, or were not in the high school at that time, The Hate U Give tells the story of Starr Carter, a young African-American girl living in the poor neighborhood of Garden Heights with her parents, her younger brother, and her older half brother. Starr attends a wealthy private school and constantly switches the way she acts to adapt to her environment. When driving after a party, Starr and her friend Khalil’s trip is suddenly interrupted when they are pulled over by the police. The police make Khalil exit the vehicle and rest his hands on the car; when he reaches in the car for his hairbrush, he is shot and killed. After this scarring event, Starr questions her place in the world.
The Hate U Give explores Starr’s experiences in trying to find her voice through fighting for Khalil and racial equality. The book is told from Starr’s perspective, an overlooked and often silenced point of a view. Starr has a powerful story to tell, and throughout both the movie and book, we see her grow as she builds up the courage to tell it.
The movie starts off with Starr’s neighborhood, Garden Heights. We see the fun and welcoming aspects of the neighborhood, and then we are brought into Starr’s home where her family sits around their dining room table while her father gives them “the talk”: what Starr and her older brother should do if the cops were ever to stop them. He emphasizes the importance of listening to instructions, not making sudden movements, and always keeping one’s hands where the police can see them. This is a sad but necessary conversation, and the mood of the movie quickly changes thereafter.
Our country should be at a place where police brutality and racial bias do not exist, but unfortunately people of color face these issues every single day. Police brutality remains far too frequent and horribly devastating, and in the movie, Khalil’s death reveals how society accepts and moves on with that fact. The movie effectively does not sugar coat these difficult truths, and is upfront in its presentation.
“[The movie] did a good job [of portraying] some of the really tough scenes from the book,” said Cole Davenport (IV).
A major aspect shown in the movie is the constant code switching Starr is forced to engage in. She is never the ‘right’ Starr, always finding herself feeling out of place. After she undergoes so much while on the pathway to find her voice, she realizes that she needs to stay true to herself before pleasing others.
One of the only real differences I noted between the book and movie was that in the movie there were multiple references to Harry Potter, which connected Starr with Khalil and Natasha, her childhood friends who were both shot and killed. The other change I noticed was that the character of Starr’s boyfriend, Chris, was downplayed. In the book, Chris has a monumental moment when he goes with Starr to protest and stays with her the whole time, but in the movie, Chris leaves the protest. By downplaying Chris’ role in the movie, viewers find themselves able to focus more on Starr’s powerful story. After all, the story is about Starr finding her voice and navigating the situation she is placed in.
There is also a major contrast between Starr’s dad and her Uncle, Carlos. Carlos works as a cop, therefore making him take an extremely different stance on police brutality than Starr’s father.
“Their fights [are] something I never really paid much attention to in the book and in the movie ,they are brought to life in really interesting ways. I think the movie delves into their similarities and differences really well,” said Charlotte Berney (IV). The movie captures the difference in perspective and how your position can affect your opinions.
I personally loved the movie and thought that it showed a very powerful and important message extremely well.
“[The movie] gives a glimpse into the mindset of what it’s like to not have your voice be heard, and living with fear on a daily basis,” said Caroline Lesser (IV).
As we follow Starr through her journey, we are constantly brought back to the Tupac saying, “Thug Life,” which stands for “The Hate You Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody.” This saying means that what is drilled into kids at a young age is what keeps the injustice in society functioning. Society is only unjust because we pass our prejudices down to younger generations. Khalil explains this to Starr, and inspired her to do everything she could to break the system through finding her voice. The Hate U Give is an incredible movie that leaves us with important lessons to take forward and standards to live by. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, you’re truly missing out.
