How Starr Goes from Acting to Embracing in The Hate U Give

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In The Hate U Give, Starr Carter is caught between two worlds. She lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, but her father sends her and her brothers to a private school where she is surrounded by white people. She talks about acting differently depending on what group she is around, which can create some identity problems. She says on page 11, "Funny how it works with white kids though. It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black." When at Williamson, she sees white kids that think it's cool to engage in black culture, but she knows they don't understand what she goes through in her Garden Heights community.

She witnessed her friend Natasha's death when she was 10 years old, and she sees gang activity in her community all the time. When she is among her black friends, like at the party, they tease her for hanging out with the white kids. This reminds me of a Drake song where he says, "I used to get teased for being black, and now I'm here and I'm not black enough." Drake went through a similar situation. He grew up in Toronto with his white mom, so he felt like he didn't completely fit in. Then, he went to live with his black father in Memphis and felt like an outsider because his peers said he didn't act black enough. I can definitely see some parallels between Drake's case and what happens with Starr in this novel.

This also reminds me of Part-Time Indian, where Arnold lives on the reservation but is surrounded by mostly white people when he goes to Reardan High School. He struggled with finding who he really is, and the reader can see that with Starr as well. When Khalil's unjust murder occurs, she is forced to grow up fast. She has to come to grips with her identity, because she needs that strong self-image to stand up for Khalil and minorities in general. 

A quote that really stood out to me was on page 441. Starr says, "If I face the truth, as ugly as it is, she's right. I was ashamed of Garden Heights and everything in it. It seems stupid now though. I can't change where I come from or what I've been through, so why should I be ashamed of what makes me, me?" This is at the end of the novel, so she is self-aware by this point as to who she is and what feels right to stand up for. At the beginning of the book she talked about hiding her "ghetto" around her white friends, but now she embraces who she is and where she comes from.

I really enjoyed this book, and I look forward to watching the movie as well. Although it's pretty long (450 pages), I think this would be a great book to teach in my classroom. I feel that my minority students will be able to find guidance from Starr's strong narration, but I also feel that finding your voice is something that relates to the development of all adolescents. A lot of teens act differently depending on the group they are around, so this book could also serve as a reminder to be yourself and not be ashamed of who you are.


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