The Reality Within The Hate U Give

There are various expectations when reading a piece of literature in a specific genre. In the case of Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give, it falls in the category of young adult fiction and realistic fiction.

The main protagonist Starr Carter is a teenage girl who has just witnessed the murder of her friend at the hands of the police. This narrative fits the expectations of its genre. For example, many young adult novels follow a character who is in the age range of fourteen to eighteen. Usually, these novels have content that is also suitable for the age range of fourteen to eighteen as well. For example, The Hate U Give fits these expectations in its various ways of showing teenage life. In the very beginning, Starr and her friends are going to a party. In the scene, Starr is not enjoying her time and states, “I squeeze through sweaty bodies and follow Kenya… Between the headache from the loud-ass music and the nausea from the weed odor, I’ll be amazed if I cross the room without spilling my drink” (Thomas 1). This is one of the lighter instances within the book, however. Some of the scenes can be violent and triggering. Nonetheless, it is important for young readers to be aware of these events, even in a fictional setting, in order to gain empathy for when these events happen in real life. For example, shortly after the party scene, Starr and her friend Khalil are driving away. They are stopped by a police officer and Starr panics, running through all the rules that her father taught her in order to stay safe when stopped by law enforcement. Khalil does not follow all of these rules however and he is shot by the officer:

It’s not smart to make a sudden move. Khalil does. He opens the driver’s door. 

“You okay, Starr—”

Pow!

One. Khalil’s body jerks blood splatters from his back. He holds on to the door to keep himself upright.

Pow!

Two. Khalil gasps.

Pow! 

This scene shows the brutal truth about how racism and corruption within the police force can affect the lives of so many people, including children.

The novel fits into the genre of realistic fiction as well because the events and violence that occur within the text can and have occurred in real life. The murder of black people at the hands of the police is not new and has been seen in cases like Emmett Till, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor. This book brings awareness to the violence people of color face from a very young age and allows youth who may not know about it to become educated.

These different elements of the novel play into Kaja Silverman’s intertextual codes, which she discusses in the chapter “Re-Writing the Classic Text,” in The Subject of Semiotics. According to Silverman, the hermeneutic code is a “code [which] inscribes the desire for closure and ‘truth’” (257). In the context of The Hate U Give, the driving force behind the plot and the need for closure is the suspense of whether or not Khalil will get justice and if the community can heal and break away from the violent cycle it is trapped in. In multiple places, other deaths within the community that Starr lives in are mentioned and normalized, including those with the police. These recurring instances relate to the semiotic code, mentioned by Silverman. Every time there is an interaction with a police officer there is tension. In fact, in order to stay calm and avoid becoming a target, Starr goes through the list of things her father told her to do in the case that she comes in contact with law enforcement. Whenever the police appear in the story the characters are wary and highly observant of them. This leads the reader to assume that it is a normal occurrence within the novel. However, it also adds to the suspense and need for closure on whether the violence will continue or if it can be stopped. 

Another code that Silverman discusses is the proairetic code. She describes this as what “determines the sequence of events within a story. It is the ‘glue’ which makes certain clusters of events will follow each other in a predictable order” (262). This means that in the novel, there is a specific tie that is holding the plot together and forcing it in a certain direction. One element that could be doing this is the violence of the police towards people of color in real life. A seme of modern-day society is that the untimely death of many people of color is normalized. When they become victims at the hands of law enforcement, many times we, as a society, know how it will play out. It is a tragic reality that the events that occur are not just specific to the novel. Therefore, society has seen what happens when someone is killed by the police. Because the genre is realistic fiction, it would make sense for the murder of Khalil and the events that take place afterward to follow a similar pattern of what would happen in real life.

A Deep Dive Into the Elements of The Hate U Give

The Hate U Give, written by Angie Thomas, was published in 2017. The novel begins with the main character, Starr, going to a party with her friend Kenya. While she is there she reunites with her childhood best friend Khalil. They talk and Starr discovers that his family is having a hard time. She speculates that he may be selling drugs in order to support them. However, their interaction and the party are interrupted when gunshots break out. The pair run to Khalil’s car and drive away in the hopes of finding safety. But as they are driving they get pulled over. Within a very short time, the situation escalates and the police officer pulls Khalil out of the car. Starr prays that he will be safe but as Khalil moves to check if Starr is okay, the officer shoots him three times. The event is horrific and traumatic and though Starr is physically okay, the trauma of Khalil’s death haunts her and brings back memories of her other childhood best friend who was killed in front of her as well. As the story progresses, Starr navigates dealing with the trauma and loss of her old friend while also living a double life. In Garden Heights, the neighborhood in which she lives, she is able to feel a sense of community with her family and friends. Yet, in Williamson where she attends high school, she must deal with being one of the only black students along with the reminder that her friends are white and a white police officer killed her friend. Starr grapples with what actions to take and how to properly give Khalil justice.

The general premise of the novel can be worded in two ways. The first is: What happens when you live in a world where your race places a target on your back? The second is: What happens when you witness your friend become a victim of hate? Both of these premises are connected to each other. The first is a broader statement that we can see as bystanders to the events that happen in real life. The second, on the other hand, is more nuanced and pertains to the events of the novel more closely and that of the specific experiences of people in real life.

These premises lead to the creation of the novel’s controlling idea. As a group, we created the statement: When you project love and positivity into the world and resist the temptation of feeding into the cycle of violence, you will receive love back. We also decided that the counter idea is: The hate and racism that is projected onto youth, along with systematic inequality and economic disparity,  forces the youth to learn to survive under unstable circumstances which can lead to poor decisions or violent situations that end in their own destruction.

The Counter Idea is introduced in the first chapter of the novel when Khalil drives Starr home. He explains a Tupac lyric and anagram to Starr, “Thug Life” (The hate you give little infants fucks everybody). This is a negatively charged moment not only because of the negatively charged idea, but also because the scene follows a shooting at a party, and it precedes the murder of Khalil by police. 

The Controlling Idea is shown at the end when Starr stops her little brother from perpetuating the cycle of violence by telling him “Dasia, add ending here”. This climactic moment is positively charged, which makes the ending an idealistic one. Overall, I would say the book is a very intriguing read, following all of these themes of hate breeding hate, survival of the fittest, and what to do when the ones we love are gone while trying to maintain their memories and avenge them in the process. 

Layers of Interpolation in Maus

“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.”

“The rhetoric of reading consists of the relationships that readers create between themselves and the emerging possibilities which they anticipate in the text.”  Seitz insists that it takes a ‘capable reader’ to be able to make inferential leaps while reading a text. This leads to a ‘rhetoric of reading’, a conversation between the implied author, and the implied reader. Authors entice us as readers by offering this exchange of ideas: if we allow them to say their piece, we can interpret the text however we wish. On the other hand, we can choose to not be interpolated by not filling the role of implied reader. The qualities required as an implied reader depend on a text’s controlling values, and if a reader chooses not to consider the author’s voice, the conversation never really begins. 

There are multiple layers of this reader-author relationship within Maus. Vladek tells Artie his life story, and Artie ropes the reader into the equation by asking us to fill the role of implied reader twice. Once in Artie’s place, to lend a sympathetic ear to Vladek. The other is listening to Artie, as he tells us his experience listening to Vladek. Although the “story within a story” trope is common, viewed through this lens, Spiegelman is requiring much from the implied reader. Asking readers to simultaneously be sympathetic towards both Vladek’s past traumas and Artie’s familial trauma incited by Vladek is a contradictory and sometimes confusing request from Spiegelman.  

One example of this is Vladek destroying his wife’s diaries.  The capable reader was supposed to be curious as to the diary’s contents from the multiple references to them. Once the reader and Artie find out that Vladek was lying, the reader is interpolated into being angry and hurt along with Artie, by Artie.  Also, by destroying his wife’s diaries, Vladek is maintaining his control as the implied author by filtering out other controlling values. The implied reader has no choice after this betrayal but to continue the relationship with Vladek, if they want to hear the conclusion.

The Hierarchy of Animals and Society in Maus

When discussing intertextuality in Art Spiegelman’s Maus, it is important to reflect on what intertextuality specifically is. According to James Porter in his essay “Intertextuality and the Discourse Community,” he writes that “Not infrequently, and perhaps ever and always, texts refer to other texts and in fact rely on them for their meaning. All texts are interdependent: We understand a text only insofar as we understand its precursors” (34). By this, Porter means that almost every piece of writing is influenced by another. Whether they are directly quoting or pulling in accepted societal constructs, something is always being referenced and, without it, the text would not make sense and lack context. 

Looking at Maus, one of the main points being made by the author is that the characters within the graphic novel are not human. Everyone that is Jewish is a mouse, everyone that is Polish is a pig, and everyone that is German and a Nazi is a cat. These caricatures can be explained in various ways. For example, one of the reasons that Spiegelman may have used animals is to make it more palatable to readers. By dehumanizing all of the characters it is easier to personify them. He is able to depict them in a way that reveals the graphic events of the Holocaust while also using symbolism. 

In the text, Spiegelman and his father have a conversation in which they reference Walt Disney. Looking at Disney’s work, whose main original characters were animals, a connection can be drawn. Disney is known for Mickey Mouse and similarly, Spiegelman is portraying his main characters as mice as well. In addition, the process of turning the characters into animals mirrors Walt Disney’s method of commercializing and beautifying harsh source material. Disney’s beautification of Grimm’s fairy tales is different because the source material is fictional and not so recent. The Holocaust on the other hand is at the forefront of the public consciousness.  By making horrible historical events more palatable for readers, he is strengthening the narrative, but at the cost of possibly compartmentalizing and minimizing the obvious effects of the Holocaust. 

However, the imagery of mice goes much deeper than purely entertainment purposes. The animal imagery is used to establish a social rank and class system within the graphic novel. When the reader sees a mouse they immediately think of them as Jewish and in danger. When the reader sees a cat, they think predator and German. The pigs depict the Polish people and when the reader sees them they think of them neither as predator or prey, but simply a bystander. The dynamic between cat and mouse is one that is clear throughout media. Shows like Tom and Jerry and Itchy and Scratchy from The Simpsons, could even be used as an example of the typical cat and mouse relationship. In this situation the context is much more serious but the rules still apply: the cat is hunting the mouse. 

The rank of predator and prey also applies to social status. During the Holocaust, Jewish people were thought of as the lowest rung on the social ladder. In books like Night, by Elie Wiesel and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, by John Boyne, this dynamic is also seen. All of these texts depict what it was like at the time for Jewish people to survive. Spiegelman shows this social disparity between Jewish people and the rest of society through his depictions of animals. The mouse, as previously stated, is hunted by the cat. The polish people being depicted as pigs can be taken as a derogatory reference for their lack of action during the Holocaust. It can also be speculated that they were chosen to be pigs because in the Jewish religion, pork is not kosher. 

Spiegelman’s commentary on the division of society into groups is one that has been discussed throughout time. In the Middle Ages, there were three classes of people (the nobles, the clergy, and the peasants) and it was  almost impossible to move from one to the other. People like Karl Marx discuss the separation of the Bourgeoisie from the Proletariat. Throughout history, the separation and segregation of people has always been present, and Spiegelman continues to show this in his work.

Close reading and Genre for Maus

genre :comic/ autobiography

The first thing that stood out to me was that the story was a comic book about the story of a Holocaust survivor, Vladek, and his son Artie. This was a very surprising and unexpected format because comics are known for being funny and any readings I have read about the Holocaust is usually the total opposite which made this comic unconventional in a way but also made me more interested in reading on this topic compared to just reading an autobiography, my projections changed but I wondered why the author chose a comic format? 

Although the story is a true story based on Vladek’s experiences during World War II, all the characters in the comic are portrayed as animals such as mice, cats, pigs, frogs, and dogs making it fictional. 

I began to think about the symbolism between the different animals and the race they portrayed to understand why certain animals were picked. I also wondered if the animals were used to lighten the mood of the story since it was such a harsh topic to read about. 

Art talked about being in competition with his brother but I found it surprising that he referred to his brother as a ghost, picture, and snapshot instead of a human being. 

“the photo never threw tantrums or got in any trouble…it was an ideal kid, and I was a pain in the ass, I couldn’t compete” 

the eyebrows in the 7 sonic shoes one mouse looking mean and the other looking confused after his comparison, The words “spooky” and ghost” seemed bold which stood out since most ghost are considered scary. 

Throughout the story, all the characters were portrayed as anthropomorphic animals, but on this particular page art now shows himself as a human with a mouse mask on. Looking at the comic scene strips in the order it’s basically zooming out, revealing the pile of dead mice that are supposed to represent Jews. In a way, the drawing sums up the guilt most Holocaust survivors have. 

“After Anja died I had to make an order with everything… these papers had too many memories. So I burned them.’… ‘But, I’m telling you, after the tragedy with mother, I was so depressed then, I didn’t know if I’m coming or I’m going!” (159)

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about surprising elements of Maus is the end of volume one. When I discovered that Vladik burned Anja’s old journals and belongings I was shocked. I had expected Vladik to have her belongings stored away since he keeps so many other things, including objects that could even be deemed trash. I also thought he would hold onto her things since he seems so unhappy with Mala and their relationship and I thought it was because he hadn’t yet moved on and healed from Anja. 

Every moment in Maus in which Artie breaks his father’s narrative and resumes the “present-day” was surprising to me. This is because Spiegelman always left the story of his father’s time during the war off in such a place, that it juxtaposes Artie and Vladek’s current situation in interesting ways. For example, on page 118 Artie gives his father a hard time picking up a discarded piece of wire that Vladek insists can be reused. This occurs right after Vladek finished describing how he designed multiple bunkers with random household objects and furniture that ended up saving himself and many others. That same resourcefulness that saved lives decades before is now being rewarded not with gratitude, but annoyance. These moments recontextualize Vladek’s current behavior, which varies from strange to destructive. These moments also put Artie’s current problems into perspective, and show how little it takes him to become aggravated or anxious, versus how calm Vladek remained through most of his time during the war. The entire narrative structure is a great example of juxtaposition. 

Maus is, without a doubt, one of the most unique stories I’ve ever read for a class assignment, with usually all the other books being novels. Why I think that is more of the fact that we get to jump between two different periods of time to fully understand the story at hand. By understanding what went on in the past, we can use this to help empathize with the issues happening today. 

An example of this I want to touch up upon is when Vladek and his wife arrived at Auschwitz and were forced to be separated by the Nazis (book 2, page 25), as they desperately cling to one another to stay together, but their efforts were in vain as they were split apart. But as we jump to the present, Vladek tells his son, Art that they were never truly separated because they knew they would see each other again. As he says that, the book showcases a panel of an angry German Cat between the present and the past, between the old Vladek and the young Vladek, showcasing that this story is still going on then and it’s still going on now, that the ripples of time can echo into the future, shaping us no matter how old we are. 

Family History and Generational Gaps in Maus

Jumping between the past and the present of which this story was originally written, the story of Maus by Art Spiegelman showcases a fine line between remembering our history and being forgotten by the unforgiving passage of time. But when it comes to remembering what we experienced, we are left with so many options on what to do with such knowledge. What Art does here is use the information from his father’s past to help him come to terms with what happened to some degree. Art does this by recording his words and his stories in the form of a graphic novel. When the story is being told, Art starts to learn and understand his father more and more, which helps strengthen their relationship. Art doesn’t want to sell Maus for any personal gain. Art sells Maus so others can understand first hand how lives like his father were affected by the horrors of the past, and can also help expand upon it more. 

This fine tale showcases a man (or to be more accurate: a rat) named Vladik and his life before, during, and after the events of World War II, and specifically, the Holocaust. A tale of comedy and tragedy, how one generation inspires another, and the desire to help keep a memory alive. 

In his chapter “Structure and Meaning,” Mckee defines the controlling idea of a text as “the positive or negative charge of the story’s critical value at the last act’s climax, and it identifies the chief reason that this value has changed to its final state” (115). The controlling idea in the novel Maus, is that reflecting on and speaking about generational trauma and family history serves as a therapeutic way to break the cycle of pain and hate, while moving towards healing and forgiveness. Mckee always speaks about the counter idea and states that it is the negative and opposite idea that continues to contradict the controlling idea throughout the text (119). The counter idea in Maus, is that by putting up emotional walls, repressing trauma, and destroying past memories, you never fully heal and inevitably project your personal pain onto others. But it does bring some hope that with what we’ve learned from the past, that we can learn from the mistakes of those that came before us. While reading Maus, our group was reading for information on the Holocaust, along with what kind of relationship Art had with his father. However, as we progressed in the book, we began to get pulled into the text. One of the factors that allowed for this to occur was the voice of each character throughout the entire novel. For instance, Vladek’s voice is very unique and shows things like his accent along with how he perceives the world. Artie’s voice on the other hand is more Americanized and does not have the same inflection as his father, especially when discussing the Holocaust. He is more professional and business-like about it since he never experienced what his father had to go through. Another factor that drew us into the novel was the art. For example, on page 48, the art shows Vladek killing his first Nazi.

The use of shadows and the darkness within the image shows the emotion within the moment. Another example is on page 57, when the artist portrays the dream Vladek had about his upcoming freedom.

The darkness of the image accompanied by the looming presence of Vladek’s dead grandfather creates an ominous atmosphere.  It was interesting to see the dynamic between the two and how Vladek acted around his son and his second wife. His relationship with them seems to be affected by his experiences during the Holocaust. The things that Vladek learned and picked up in order to survive translated into his actions in civilian life after the war. For example, in one part of the text Vladek and Artie are walking to the bank. On the way, Vladek finds a piece of wire and keeps it. He tells Artie “Why always you want to buy when you can find!? Anyway, this wire they don’t have it in any stores” (116). This shows some of the stress he has held onto. The trauma of having everything taken away and living with nothing has made him appreciate everything, including garbage and he does not wish to throw things away. He is also trying to save his money since money was what kept him alive for the majority of his time in hiding. 

Many of these factors lead our group to decide that the premise of the book was as follows: When unearthing family history and trauma, are younger generations who never experienced the events being discussed truly able to empathize with their elders, or must they find other methods to internalize the information such as writing it down and creating art out of it?  The various elements of Art’s interpretation of his father’s experiences, including making different races of people different animals, adds a metaphoric and symbolic element to what would have been a biographical piece of literature. The art in the graphic novel not only displays what Vladek went through, but also shows how Art is interpreting his stories and how he has chosen to display them for public consumption. 

In order to come up with the controlling idea and the counter idea, our group went through various events and climaxes within the novel. We then laid them out in order of positive and negative. This map allowed us to look at the novel from a different perspective and from there we were able to narrow down what the main ideas were. Our map looked like this: