Comparative Essay Example: Speak and The Hate U Give

Speak! And The hate you give. This commentary will analyse the two pieces using the big five. Speak! Is written by Laurie Halse Anderson, the theme is quite heavy but important. The hate you give is directed by George Tillman and one of its themes is racism. While both pieces talk about speaking up, one is a graphic novel and the other a film. 

The theme in both is explicit: both deal with having to speak up and mental health. They are to entertain but also to inform, more likely the film. Speak! Brings awareness of anxiety as you can see that Melinda (the protagonist of the novel) bites her lips often. In the movie  Starr (protagonist) shows signs of stress but it is not as clear as in the novel.  The intended audience for both is the same, its not directed for children, it needs to be a more mature and understanding audience. 

The novel has a different mood and tone than the movie, there are no happy moments. The movie has a ‘happy’ ( happy isn’t the greatest word to describe it )  ending, the novel does not have a sad ending but there simply no moments of joy, there aren’t parts in which its noticeable to see the protagonist smiling or enjoying the simple fact of being alive, she is always trying to run away to a private place where she can lock herself inside her head. That is not a bad thing, it is amazing how the illustrations in the novel can show such emotions, the eyebags under the eyes and the lips always scarred. As in the movie protagonist does show happiness, there isn’t a true happy ending because it is still happening, all the racism and the problems in the movie are real and existing, just because Starr has finally spoken up doesn’t mean it (problems)  all went away. 

The way both pieces were written is fantastic, it really hits the reader or the person watching. The topic of both are extremely important to talk about, especially the novel, it has an impact on the reader by the simple fact that it is a heavy theme to talk about. Rape, anxiety, depression, PTSD and self-harm is never talked about enough and by making it illustrative makes it even easier to try to understand the protagonist. The use of metaphors, the comparations she makes of herself to unanimated objects or that she compared her parents to a volcano and a mountain helps to understand her even more. The movie is a little harder to understand due to the fact that it has many perspectives; the police that shot an innocent boy, Starr’s perspective since she has witnessed the murder, both parents which have different opinions on the occasion and many others. As in the novel the film has heavy topics too such as; murder, racism and drugs.

Melinda and Starr have something in common, they both have the same dilemma; trouble with speaking up, that is the main reason of the comparing. Starr has trouble speaking up because of her past, she has seen a friend be killed before and she did not speak up even though she saw the face of the police officer. It was like she was having a huge flash back the moment it all happened again with another friend of hers, a childhood friend. The parents different opinions makes the decision of speaking up even harder for her, the mom who only wants her to be safe and the dad that wants her to do what she thinks it’s the best to do. One of the main things the movie wants to show the watcher is that Starr has a double life, one in which she goes to a white school and tries to be as white as can be and the other life where she goes back home in where she needs to be black and act black for her family. When she does decide to speak up, in the beginning it is anonymously, no face showed. That shows she is still afraid and wasn’t sure about her decision. Later on she does reveal herself and that doesn’t mean she still wasn’t scared, she was, but it didn’t take over her completely. She was proud as she should be. 

Melinda has a similar problem, her trouble from speaking up comes from a trauma, she uses phrases such as ‘feels like my mouth is taped shut’ to show that she wants to speak up but can’t, what she went through was extremely traumatic and not wanting to talk about it is understandable but in her case it was unhealthy. It happened in high school at a party, she got raped by a guy in the woods, she said no but it was as if it went in his ear and straight out the other. That was not the only bad thing in her life, her parents always complaining and barely pay attention to her unless it is to scream about grades which makes her shut down even more. In art class she has trouble expressing herself, she doesn’t know what she feels therefore that stresses her out too. Running away from people was her way of coping with everything. At the end she finally does speak up and its like a relief. She was able to express herself through art and decided that what happened, happened, and she cant change that, she’s self-aware that it was never her fault and she could finally move on.

Additionally Melinda and Starr are different because; Melinda uses code-breaking and Starr uses code-switching. Starr has a double life, she’s constantly switching between two worlds and Melinda was code breaking when she related to Hester in her English book.

To conclude the novel and the movie achieved their purpose successfully of how speaking up can be hard and that no matter how long it takes it is still valid. They achieved their goal of entertaining the audience. Both pieces are amazing and worth reading/watching.