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
Not only did she completely lose her innocence by being raped, but it was also taken advantage of by her step-father, the uncle husband, aunt Bimla, etc. Several people took advantage of a child, and in the process she lost herself. You did a great job incorporating her loss of innocence in such a sad novel.
ReplyDeleteReally awesome view on the book! Just the depravity that the world has resorted to is heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteI agree that she never really lost her innocence, which was really refreshing. While reading this book, I was hoping that she would become a shrewd, savage of a "woman." I constantly reminded myself that she was just thirteen. I wondered how old the other girls were and how long they had been there; some of them definitely were not as innocent as Lakshmi.
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