A Personal Connection to the Novel 'The Hate U Give' by Angie Thomas (Essay Sample)

Firstly, read the Novel "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas: https://core-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/929868/the_hate_u_give_thomas_angie.pdf
This assignment is designed to offer you an opportunity to explore your feelings about genuine, raw, and potentially explosive issues while evaluating your skills in understanding and sharing your opinion regarding events in the novel.
Part A: Discussion Items
Select three of the following prompts and write a 1-2 page personal response for your three chosen selections. Be sure to include specific reference to the novel as well for each personal response. For example: Text, (Thomas 2). Be sure to include the numbered prompt in front of your response. For Example: 1. (Personal Response Text).
I would preferably ask you to respond to 1, 2, and 3, or 1, 3 and 6.
1. In the opening scene of the novel, Starr reflects, “There are just some places where it’s not enough to be me. Either version of me” (Thomas 3). In what places have you felt this same tension? In what ways is this tension particular to people from historically oppressed groups?
Consider this quotation before responding: In his book, The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. DuBois refers to this tension as “a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.”
2. Starr receives two talks growing up: one is about the “birds and the bees,” while the other is about what to do if she is stopped by a cop. Which talks are/were important in your family? How does your response reflect your social location?
3. Starr is frustrated by people’s treatment of her after the shooting. She does not want them to pity her, valorize her, or treat her differently because of it.
Can you relate? How does grief have a way of alienating someone? What are the invisible losses of losing someone?4. People in Starr’s community have different reactions to learning that she is the eyewitness in Khalil’s shooting. Kenya encourages her to speak out, Hailey thinks she is overreacting, and Chris wishes she had told him sooner.
Which reaction feels the most familiar? Which secondary character challenges you to see yourself- or the story- differently?
5. THUG LIFE is an acronym for The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody. Khalil explains, “meaning what society give us as youth, it bites them in the ass when we wild out” (Thomas 17).
What is your reaction to this belief? What is your remedy in a world that thinks this way? How will you use your voice?
6. “Daddy says he named me Starr because I was his light in the darkness” (Thomas 58 ), Starr relates.
Who, or what, is your light in the darkness?