Episode 45: The Hate U Give Discussion

Today, Fable and The Verbivore discuss the intricately woven themes and expertly crafted characters created by author Angie Thomas in her award winning novel The Hate U Give.

We start by talking about the dynamic character arcs in this book. The main character Star’s close 1st person perspective and inner dialogue help to tell a story that unfolds with truth over time and that feels honest and eye-opening, with situations incredibly relatable to the teenage experience and others that help you see the tenuous balance she must maintain between her worlds and all the versions of herself she has to be.

In this episode, we discuss how the author uses conversations and Star’s narration to very quickly and clearly establish relationship dynamics, the strategic and inventive ways that the author provides new information that allows clearer pictures of the story and characters to form over time, and the use of repetition to show new meaning to the overarching theme of The Hate U Give (THUG LIFE) and finding and choosing to use your voice.

We also mention how the author uses assumptions (even her character Star’s) to her advantage to setup surprising, but effective and believable character growth or change that challenges preconceptions. None of the characters are just one thing, they feel human because their choices are complex and feel grounded in reality.

This book has so much to teach based on its always timely and important message as well as the complex storytelling and character development. We both feel that everyone should read it.

Writer Angie Thomas has provided the character/storyline chart that she used to write this book on her Instagram story highlights under the heading “Writing Tips”. She has also recently published the story On the Come Up and has written a prequel to The Hate U Give titled Concrete Rose which is set to release in January 12th, 2021.

We hope you enjoy this episode, we certainly enjoyed recording it! Keep creating and putting your unique voice out there! Your voice matters and is needed!

Into the woods,
Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

The Verbivore mentions Angie Thomas’ early history as a rapper and links that to poetry and being able to choose words to communicate ideas well. Angie’s experience was also used to help write her most recently released book On the Come Up. - which is a love letter to Hip Hop and Rap. She has several videos on YouTube where she personally raps sections from this book. Here is one. She also discusses the connection between rap and poetry in one of her interviews. Here is a quote from that article:

“And also it’s a look at hip-hop, and it’s a look at hip-hop as an art form and as poetry. My hope, my big hope for this book—well, one of my hopes for this book—is that it is a gateway to poetry for so many young people.”

The Tupac reference that Fable and the Verbivore discuss comes from his definition of THUG LIFE, which he defined as “The Hate U Give Little Infants F*cks Everyone”. This served as both inspiration for the book’s title “The Hate U Give” and also a broader and evolving theme woven within the story.

The Verbivore mentions that prior to this year she was unfamiliar with the name Emmett Till. His history was touched on in the novel, but he was a 14-year-old Black boy who was horrifically murdered in Chicago in 1955 for “flirting with a white woman”. Though there was significant evidence in the case, his killers where found “not guilty” by an all-white jury.

Fable mentions character archetypes. In literature, a character archetype is a typical character that falls into a category representative of universal patterns of human nature. Here are two great introductry resources regarding archetypes in literature:

The Verbivore mentions Angie Thomas’ writing tools on her intagram page @angiethomas, they can be found on her story highlights under “Writing Tips”. Within that post, she includes her own character/storyline charts for The Hate U Give and links to an article on the BetterNovelProject.com blog on the topic of series outlining which includes an example outline from Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix that J.K. Rowling released over a decade ago.

The Verbivore ends with several quotes from The Hate U Give. They are as follows:

“Sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong. The key is to never stop doing right.”

“And to every kid in Georgetown and in all ‘the Gardens’ of the world: your voices matter, your dreams matter, your lives matter. Be the roses that grow in the concrete.”

Books Mentioned:

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
’Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

book clubBethany Stedman