The Topic Of Death In The Hate U Give

In the novel 'The hate U Give 'written by Aggie Thomas, Starr goes through a lot to find her voice. The events that helped Starr find her voice and motivated her to become an advocate for the unheard was the death of her two childhood best friends Khalil and Natasha. Starr speaks out on Khalil's death, at first she is afraid of speaking out but later realized that she is the only person that can defend Khalil. Starr was the only witness for them both of her childhood best friends death Khalil and Natasha. Starr also wanted to speak for the unheard people, for her African American community. The people that are afraid to speak on things, problems that go on in the community. They watch or listen and let things happen they are afraid of what would happen to them if they spoke out.

Starr and Khalil didn't see each other for a while before his death had happened. Khalil stopped working at Starr’s dad's store. Khalil and Starr live in the bad area called garden heights and it’s hard to make any money there and Khalil wasn’t getting paid that much in Starr's dad's store. Khalil didn’t have it easy as Starr did, he didn’t have a dad or a mom to take care of him and his brother. His grandma was the only person taking care of him and his brother. They had food on the table and a roof over their head but Khalil wanted more like cloth and shoes. After that Khalil stopped working at the store and he started doing his own thing and started getting, brand new jordans, crisp white tee, diamonds in his ears.

After he stopped working at the store the first time Khalil and Starr saw each other was at a party. That’s the first time they talked in a while. When they were talking, everyone heard gunshots at the party,( in chapter 1, page 18) Starr says “a commotion stirs in the middle of the dance floor. Voices argue louder than the music. Cuss words fly left and right.” Khalil pulls Starr out of the crowd and takes Starr to his car. That night Khalil gets pulled over by a cop and Starr was in the passenger seat. I chapter 2 the cop tells Starr and Khalil to stay where they were at. Khalil opens the driver’s door to check on Starr and the cop shot’s Khalil twice. Right in front of Starr face Khail fall to the ground. All Starr could just scream and see him drop to the ground her instinct says don't move, but everything else telling her to check on him. But she didn’t care what her instinct telling her she jumped out of the car and went to check on him. All she could do is just stare at him and say no, no, no and Khalil just laying there looking at the sky. This wasn’t the first time Starr witness someone getting shot when Starr was ten she saw her other childhood best friend Natasha get shot in a drive-by shooting. One minute Starr and Natasha were playing and splashing in the water all happy, then Starr heard three gunshots she thought it was her but it was just the thorns on the rosebush that got her. The person that got shot was her best friend Natasha. ( Chapter 3, page 32,) Starr says “ her blood mixed in with the water, and all you could see was a red river flowing down the street.”

Starr is two different persons, in two different worlds first one is garden heights and Starr is a shy and scared girl at garden heights, she is afraid to do or say anything there. she has to earn her coolness it's like she was invisible. At garden heights, hardly anyone knows her or her name and if they did know her they knew her as Big Mav's daughter. But Starr thought no one knew her at garden heights but in chapter 13 this boy name Devante told her that Khalil talked about Starr to his friends and how she was the coolest girl he knew. At Williamson she cool and confident girl because she was the only black girl there. She always tries to keep those two worlds separated. she can do anything at Williamson like dance and the white people will think it's some cool new trend. At garden heights, she can't even do anything she wants because the people will be quick to judge you and think you a fool. Once they see you being a fool it's over for you. Starr doesn’t do anything but work at her dad's store and go to school. Her parents don't let her do anything like go to the party either. The only reason why Starr ended up going to the party was that her friend Kenya begged her to come. Kenya and Starr share an older brother named seven, all of them share the same dad but seven and Kenya share the same mom. Kenya thinks that Starr to good for garden heights and the parties they have there. Kenya brought Starr because she needed help to fight someone. Kenya calls Starr whenever she needs her. Kenya thinks that Starr doesn't have a life or friends of her own. Kenya and Starr get along they don't see each other as sister just because they share an older brother, they think they don't have to act like sisters.

Starr has a lot of things on her mind that she always wants to say, but it never comes out that's why she's always quit she afraid of the consequences. She thinks that speaking out always going to have a bad impact on things and that it won't change anything she does or say. Starr afraid to speak out and speak to the detectives but if it was going to get Khalil justice she was going to do anything. She didn’t want Khalil's story to go unheard. But when it came time to speak to the detectives it didn't help Starr, the detectives didn’t believe anything Starr told them even though she was telling the truth. when Khalil was on the news and the report called him a suspected drug dealer. The only reason Kahlil sold drugs was because of his mom. Khalil's mom is a drug addict and she stole something from the biggest drug dealer in Starr's neighborhood and that was king. King is Kenya and Steven's dad. Starr had to hear People say reporting and saying a lot of untruthful things, but Starr was also heard from her friend Hailey. Haily doesn't know anything she defends her own people, she thinks when the officer cruises shot Khalil he did the right thing. Hailey telling all these things to Starr because Khalil lived in garden heights he was a bad person and that he was going to get shot eventually. Hailey saw Khalil as a drug dealer and gangbanger.

Khalil didn't like selling drugs that's why he turned king down when he asked him if Khalil wanted to be his drug dealer. But as much as Khalil hated drugs he still helped out his mom in a bad situation even though she does nothing for her kids but causes problems for them. That didn’t help Starr case for getting Khalil justice. officer cruises the one who shot Kahlil his father told all these lies about Khalil in the interview to protect his son. He said that his son was threatened by Khalil and that officer cruises had a family to go back to. That made it seem like shooting Khalil was ok. The grand jury didn't put officer brian cruise on the trail. Starr did everything she could she told the whole truth, the people didn’t take Khalil's death seriously they didn’t contemplate it as a crime. (Chapter 23, page 383) Starr says “ but dame, what about his life? He was once a walking, talking human being.” When it was said that officer brian cruise wasn’t going to jail for killing Khalil, people lost it going crazy even Starr people just shouting “justice for Khalil.”Starr gave up at that point, she just wanted justice for Khalil but if people just gave her the hate so now she just wants to put them in their place. The people deserve it, Starr went through a lot to get Khalil justice but all it did for her was her getting death threats, cops harassing her family and last but not least her house was shot up. She was tired of all that stuff she doesn't care anymore.

Starr didn’t want Khalil's story to not be heard like her best friend Natasha was. she doesn't want it to happen again. That motivated Starr to speak out for people. another thing that motivated her was people speaking untruthful things about Khalil on the news and everywhere. Starr thought if she was by Khalil's side and helping him through the hard times he was going through she thinks she could have stopped him from what he was doing. People never speak out in her neighborhood when something happens or is there a bad situation no one says anything they feel like it’s not going to make any difference in the community and that’s what Starr wants to change. They think since they live in a bad area like garden heights they don't matter or their story or voice doesn't matter.