Analysis Of Starr And Chris From The Hate U Give By Angie Thomas
When we look at Starr and Chris together we think of them as a cute couple on the outside with him making grand gestures to make her laugh or feel better, but on the inside they have problems. Chris comes from an entirely different world than Starr. When she visits his home she describes it as “too fancy to live in.” Starr is grateful just to finally have a house away from gunshots and crime. She is overwhelmed by her differences with Chris and feels more than ever they should not be together. Maybe Chris’s house is a symbol the author used to expand the differences between Chris and Starr, supporting the idea of these two different worlds she lives in. Of course she does love him and although sometimes he can make some ignorant comments about race, Chris is a source of comfort and happiness for Starr.
We know Chris cares a lot about Starr after seeing his reaction to finding out all the things Starr had kept from him of her background and he wished she could have trusted him with it. Throughout the book the author uses inner thought to describe Starr’s thoughts. As Starr lives in two different worlds she is forced to be two different people. Inner thought allows the author to show the real Starr rather than the masked one. Seven has a hard family life. He shares a father with Starr but his mother is Iesha a girl his father cheated on with. Seven is a loving brother that takes care of his family. He’s protective of his sisters to the point where he was willing to give up his college opportunities and scholarships to stay in Garden Heights to make sure they are safe.
Seven has a strong impact in Starr’s life, picking her up from school every day, playing basketball, protecting her and everything else a big brother does. When Seven saw Starr needed to get out of the house after Khalil’s death he brought her to play basketball to take her mind off everything that was going on in her world. Seven has a tough relationship with his mother because he feels she is always choosing her boyfriend over him, especially considering she kicked him out of the house. At the Carter’s barbeque at the end of the book the author uses point of view through dialogue to show a feeling of abandonment Seven feels from his mother. While screaming at her, he exclaims he is ashamed of her and that he never told his friends at Williamson that Lisa, Mavericks wife and Starr’s mother, is not his real mother. This reveal of Seven supports the theme of sometimes people hide themselves under a mask showing a different identity then their real self despite how much they trust the people around them for fear of non-acceptance or simply ashamed of what they’re hiding.
A specific Tupac song that is referred to a lot throughout the book is “The Hate U Give Little Infants F**** Everybody” which stand for THUG LIFE. This to me says when you give children anything but love it only results in them growing up badly. Maybe Tupac is saying Thugs become who they are because of how they were raised. This comes back to how it “ (ruins) everybody” because they might become drug dealers which is very common in Garden Heights and this system of drug dealers and crime is never ending as they often have no other choices.
In Seven’s case if it wasn’t for his father he would be living in the streets and might have fallen into this path. The author uses the song title to support another theme. Although people make their own choices, with proper parenting and a loving family this can affect the way a child grows up and avoid them from choosing the wrong paths in life. This theme, although hard to realize, is definitely shown through Seven.
