The Hate U Give - Khalil’s death rewritten using the same structure and word choices as the author, Angie Thomas.
Bang!
Khalil’s body suddenly jerks as blood shoots out his chest.
Bang!
Khalil loses his balance as his eyes lock with mine.
Bang!
His body drops to the ground.
I look at his unmoving body as the police look at me. I think back to what my dad used to tell me when preparing me for a run-in with the police. “Stay calm. Don’t move. Cooperate. ” Except this was no run-in; this was murder. I look at Officer One-Fifteen who shot Khalil and I can’t hold it in. I scream as loud as I can with tears falling down my face. I run to see Khalil and rush down to the ground next to him with my jaw wide open, shrieking silently. I place my hands on his chest to try and stop the bleeding because I remember my mom saying that’s the first thing you should do when someone is injured. But with three bullets, all my efforts would be useless. There is too much blood. He is gone. Khalil is dead. I look around and see everyone just standing there idly. No one is helping; everyone is only staring. I keep screaming “no, no, no” as his blood transfers to my hands, but it feels like no one can hear me. I look back at Khalil and see him looking up to the sky. I hope he is looking at God. I hope he finally finds peace.
I can see the life drain out of Khalil’s eyes as his muscles tighten. Officer One-Fifteen is now staring me down at gunpoint. I put my hands up and leave Khalil’s body on the ground. All alone. Now they are going through his car? I am looking at them as they realize that the “weapon” they saw was only a hairbrush. All I want is to go up to the police and tell them, “close his eyes, cover his body, and leave him be after all the pain you have already caused.” But my feet stay glued to the ground.
I do not move.
I cannot move.
It seemed like hours went by before they covered his body with a white sheet. Khalil can’t breathe. I can't breathe. I can feel the blood pounding in my ears and my heart thudding in my chest. My hands are shaking uncontrollably while still in the air. My vision has gone blurry because of all the tears in my eyes. Officer One-Fifteen can breathe fine as his fellow officers discourage his slight regret. I feel physically sick.
I am choking on the cold air.
And choking.
And choking.
I see a familiar face walking towards me and say “Starr? Come on, let’s go home.” I try to respond but instead I crumble into the comfortable arms of my dad as we walk to the car. I sit down in the front seat, look at my dad and breakdown completely. “It was just a hairbrush!” I say with the most painful, raspy, tear-filled voice ever heard.
Reflection
Angie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give, portrayed the present day issue of racial injustice targeting African-Americans. Thomas wrote this story in first-person from the perspective of the main character, Starr, with a limited omniscient narrative style to add her biased opinions about cruel racial treatment by police officers. Also, Thomas’ style of writing in this novel included simple and minor sentences to not only bring forth more feeling, but also appeal to young-adult readers. In my adaptation, the biased tone was also portrayed by using simple and minor sentences with the first-person, limited omniscient narrative style. My writing aimed to invoke feelings of grief and anger regarding racial inequality in the reader. For example, “I think back to what my dad used to tell me when preparing me for a run-in with the police… Except this was no run-in; this was murder” from my adaptation shows my biased feeling on the theme subject by using short sentences in a first person narrative with emotion filled words.
In addition, Thomas employed fairly complex language in her writing as this novel has a mature target audience of young-adults. These more complex words and scenes were not only necessary due to the main character’s age as Starr is 15-16, but also allowed more range for Thomas to creatively and effectively make her point about racial unfairness. Specifically this scene in which Khalil, a teenage African-American male, is shot multiple times by a white police officer, includes vivid imagery and emotional word choices displaying suffering. It also included profanity. I carefully implemented this same semi-complex language, while maintaining simple sentences, in this mature scene to ensure that young-adults would find this novel interesting and disturbingly prevalent to today’s issues. The shrill of the shots and the aftermath anxiety attack in my adaptation are evidence of this language and sentence style. Thomas’ writing style throughout the novel included a mix of narration and dialogue; however, the excerpt scene was mainly narrated by Starr about her physical and emotional struggles immediately after her friend's death. Also, this was purposeful to show the reader that Starr has not yet found her voice (her self-identity) at this point in the novel; particularly, with outsiders, as she is comfortable speaking with her father. Similarly, my adaptation included mostly narration by Starr with little dialogue to symbolically portray this same theme.
Furthermore, Thomas develops a theme of racial injustice in this excerpt from Chapter Two. In my adaptation, I constantly reminded the reader of the unjust that had occurred. For example, the reader was reminded many times that police officer One-Fifteen wrongfully shot and murdered Khalil over a hair brush. The reader was also reminded that the officer decided to shoot Khalil before realizing it was a hairbrush and not a weapon. Moreover, keeping in line with Thomas’ language style, I attempted to bring a more mature and heart wrenching view to Khalil’s death. For example, I wrote,
I can see the life drain out of Khalil’s eyes as his muscles tighten. Officer One-Fifteen is now staring me down at gunpoint. I put my hands up and leave Khalil’s body on the ground. All alone. Now they are going through his car? I am looking at them as they realize that the “weapon” they saw was only a hairbrush. All I want is to go up to the police and tell them, “close his eyes, cover his body, and leave him be after all the pain you have already caused.” But my feet stay glued to the ground. I do not move. I cannot move.
This shows Starr’s pain when Khalil is shot and how she wishes she could say something, but she knows the very real possibility of her being shot as well. The following quote in my adaptation describes Starr's sense of personal responsibility and restraint that African-Americans are ingrained with: “I look at his unmoving body as the police look at me. I think back to what my dad used to tell me when preparing me for a run-in with the police. ‘Stay calm. Don’t move. Cooperate.’” Thomas chose this more serious style of writing about Khalil’s death to make the reader feel the sadness and pain of not only the loss of a friend, but even more importantly, the presence of racism and racial injustice.
Thomas’ clever use of first person, limited omniscient narrative style, mixed with simple sentence structure, illustrating a serious situation and topic, brought forth the main themes of wrongful racial cruelties, personal responsibility, and self identity. The importance of the repeated “and choking” in my adaptation, graphically depicts these themes as Starr exhibits vocal restraint, due to her cultural, stereotypical guidance and her inability to speak out against the situational racial injustice.
Comments