Depending on who is the speaker in a book, the details and story can be quite different. Some authors prefer multiple perspectives, while others tend to use only one. However, in some cases, there is a reason those views are portrayed. An example of this is Starr Carter from The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. The protagonist of the story, Starr Carter, struggles through life, knowing she is the only one who can avenge her friend Khalil Harris. This knowledge puts herself, her family, and her friends in danger. In The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas portrays the perspective of the story through Starr, as she tries to obtain equality for Khalil.Without Starr, readers wouldn’t be able to get a good understanding of the book, which is Starr’s reason for narrating.

It clearly makes sense for Starr to be the well, star of the book seeing as she was the only witness to the main conflict of the book. She gives every detail of the situation and states characteristics and features of the officer, who pulled her and Khalil over, like how he seems to be irritated and also how Khalil doesn’t follow some of the officer’s instructions, (Angie Thomas Pg.22-23). Starr is able to give readers a play-by-play of what’s going on around her whereas no other character would be able to describe the scenario like her, besides the officer and Khalil. Even then, the story would be unlike Starr’s version.

Speaking of other views, if the narrator was another character, such as the officer, the story would indeed be different, and details would be changed. Differing from Starr who is a more reliable source to tell the story. This can be proven by the officer’s father. The father changes the story to make his son seem like the victim. He says in the interview,”He said the kid and his friend immediately started cussing him out--’We never cursed,”(Angie Thomas Pg.246). The readers are shown that the father is willing to change the details of the story to make his son look innocent. In addition, this also tells readers why Starr is a dependable source for narration.

Furthermore, Starr witnessing the death of Khalil by the officer makes her want to speak out more and more about the injustice that took place that night as the story progresses. Throughout the book Starr slowly starts to becomes vexed, leading to external conflict such as her fight with Hailey, which Hailey bright about herself since she also contributed to Starr’s anger by making certain racist comments, (Angie Thomas Pg.341-342). This anger leads to all kinds of information, such as racism in the communities, which readers wouldn’t be able to get from other characters. The building of Starr’s anger brings suspense to the book. A lot of  readers want to find out when and where she would unleash her rage,and come up with enough courage to speak up for Khalil. This rage is found mainly in Starr, and puts readers on the edge of their seat anticipating it.

Without a doubt, Starr is the perfect narrator for The Hate U Give. With the story being portrayed through Starr’s eyes, it gives the readers a great representation of the scenes. All evidence leads to her being the revolving point of the story. However, it makes no sense for any other character to explain the story of Khalil’s death, seeing as they wouldn’t have witnessed it and would be less reliable. Not seeing Starr as the speaker would give readers a whole different book.