Themes of Friendship and Finding Your Voice in "The Hate U Give"

“The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas is a novel that was first published in 2017 and later adapted into a movie. The book follows sixteen year old Starr Carter as she navigates her life after witnessing a close friend get killed by a police officer. The way it happened was that Starr and her best friend, Khalil, got pulled over by a cop who refused to tell them the reason why. The cop, (Officer Cruise) tells Khalil to get out of the car and not move while he looks at their documents. When Khalil leans into the window to ask Starr if she’s okay, the officer shoots him. After his shocking death, Starr struggles with the fact that some people think that it is good he died, that it’s just one less drug dealer and troublemaker on the streets. Throughout the novel, Starr finds justice for Khalil by finding herself. 

I think one of the most important aspects of this book is friendships. For context, Starr goes to a private school where she and her brother, Seven, are basically the only African American kids. So Starr has two different personalities: one for school (a good, respectful student) and one for everywhere else. After Khalil’s tragic death, it gets hard for Starr to keep these two lives of hers separated, as she’s working through grief and guilt on top of her friends’ thoughts on Khalil’s death. As time progresses in the book, Starr has to choose which friendships she wants to keep and which are better to let go of, which is hard for her since she’s had these friends for so long. I think the theme of friendship in the book is definitely one of the more relatable parts of it, because lots of high schoolers deal with friendship drama and the struggle of finding “real” friends. The depiction of friendships feels so authentic and raw, because it’s true that sometimes friendships are messy, and this demonstrates that point very well.

Perhaps the biggest theme in this novel is finding your voice. Starr has such a unique role in Khalil’s shooting, because she’s the only one to have witnessed it first hand. So it’s up to Starr to make sure everyone knows what really happened to Khalil. While she knows spreading the truth is the right thing to do, Starr is scared about what will happen to her family if there is any retaliation. But she needs to make sure that people know what happened to Khalil wasn’t okay. This leads to some very powerful and fearless moments towards the end of the book. I think that Starr’s journey with finding her voice is the most important development in the book, because Starr had so many people telling her what to do and how to feel this whole time until she finally broke free. The theme of “finding your voice” is definitely present in a lot of coming-of-age novels, and I think “The Hate U Give” qualifies as one.

 Friendships and finding your voice are only two themes out of so many that this book discusses. Guilt, violence, identity, expectations of others, stereotypes, the list goes on. “The Hate U Give” is such a powerful novel, with so much packed into it. Something that made it compelling to me is that it was narrated in such a relatable and honest way. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone. It took me a while to read, but it’s so worth it.

-Arshia