The first time I really heard anything about Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give was during my senior year of high school. When she came to talk to my classmates and me about her book, and her experience writing the story. Thomas is from Jackson, Mississippi, the same town the I was born and raised in, and really only about a decade older than I am. I had not yet read the book when I heard her speak, but I bought it as soon as the assembly was over.
Though the book never states the city that Starr, the main character, lives in, it draws some inspiration from Jackson and the surrounding metro area. While reading the book, I found myself being able to envision some of the areas Starr lived in and visited as many of the areas of Jackson that I am so familiar with. I was able to connect so much more to Starr's story because I felt like I could see the story's events through my own experiences growing up in a town very similar to the one she lives in—though my demographics are entirely different from hers.
I think the greatest accomplishment of this book is Thomas's ability to create a character that is so relatable to young people of all ages and races throughout this country. When reading it, I was brought to tears over so many of the events that happen throughout the book, not just because it was incredibly sad, but because they felt so real and authentic to the own life I have lived growing up in the same town that Thomas did.
Thomas took the very current movements of Black Lives Matter and the fight against police brutality and turned them into a story that delves deeply into the emotional trauma that comes from these issues. Before reading this book, I don't think I really understood the deep-rooted hurt and rage that stems from these problems in our society. Not that police brutality or still prevalent racial issues didn't matter to me or make me angry when I heard about them on the news— they just didn't seem like things that could actually happen to people I know and love.
The Hate U Give helped me open my eyes to some of the experiences of my closest friends, and others living in my community—I have always been aware of the hardships and inequalities that still abound in Mississippi, but have never experienced them myself I could not fully relate to the intensity of the issue. This book made me feel more enlightened and connected to the good parts of this town that I have lived in my whole life. It also inspired me literarily; seeing the success of a modern Mississippi writer stands out to me because it showed that our literary talent is not only in the past, but still abounds in our present.
