Advanced English 9 CP
Audino
Prose Annotation and Analysis Project
Use of Language and Point of View for The Hate You Give
Part ONE:
Language – COLLOQUIALISMS
Colloquialism – the use of informal words or phrases in writing or speech.
Colloquialisms are usually defined in geographical terms, meaning that they are often
defined by their use within a dialect, a regionally-defined variant of a larger language,
which in this case is the urban language on the block in the hood.
Colloquialisms can include aphorisms, idioms, profanity, or other words.
Some additional key details about colloquialisms: can occur frequently in everyday speech,
and are also used frequently in poetry, prose, and drama.
Writers often use colloquialisms in dialogue (the many conversations between Starr and
her peeps) or first-person narration (like Starr’s) both because it helps make their
characters seem more lifelike and because the way a character speaks may be one of their
defining qualities.
The word colloquialism comes from the Latin word colloquium, which means speaking
together.
Colloquialism Pronunciation: kuh-loh-kwee-uh-liz-um
Local Color – fiction and poetry that focuses on the characters, dialect,
customs, topography, and other features particular to a specific region, which
again in this case is focused on the block in the hood.
➢Directions:
Work in a T-Chart format with two columns.
1. Section One/ Chapters 1 - 15
Find four (4) colloquialisms that are funniest and/or seize your imagination the
most.
Sections Two – Five/ Chapters 15 - 26
Find three (3) colloquialisms that are funniest and/or seize your imagination
the most.
2. Type up each colloquialism and cite it with page number in the left column.
3. Express each of your seven (7) colloquialisms exactly the way parents would
likely articulate it speaking ‘properly’ who live in the affluent, majority white
neighborhood where Starr’s prep school is located in the right column.
Have some fun and exaggerate the difference in speech!!!
Part TWO:
Language – ALLUSIONS
Allusion – A reference, explicit or implicit, to something in previous
literature, history, religion, mythology, politics, sports, science or pop culture.
(Reference can be to a statement, a person, a place, or an event.)
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of
the text. Writers commonly allude to the bible, other literary works, famous individuals
whether real or mythic, historical events, or philosophical ideas, and they do so in order to
layer associations and meanings from these sources onto their own work. You have to make
the connection between the unexplained reference to someone or something else and the
details from the novel that the allusion is alluding to. It’s like a puzzle you have to solve or
a joke you have to understand.
Example:
The famous English diplomat and letter writer Lord Chesterfield once was invited to a great
dinner party given by the Spanish ambassador. At the conclusion of the meal the host rose and
proposed a toast to his master, the king of Spain, whom he compared to the sun. The French
ambassador followed with a health to the king of France, whom he likened to the moon. It was
then Lord Chesterfield’s turn. “Your excellencies have taken from me,” he said, “all the greatest
luminaries of heaven, and the stars are too small for me to make a comparison of my royal
master; I therefore beg leave to give your excellencies – Joshua!”
– Samuel Shellabarger in his Lord Chesterfield and His World, quoted by Perrine’s Literature
Try it on:
In the example above, Lord Chesterfield’s allusion is both explicit and implied – in that he
mentions a biblical figure by name directly, (I mean – who is Joshua?) but says so little about
him that the rest of the allusion is implied, and you must work to make the connection. This is
in fact a game of wits, and often works to separate the gold from the dross in our community of
minds. (Please see LAST page of project packet for answer.)
The Hate U Give is rife (filled richly) with biblical allusions, but also sports (has) tons of political,
historical, pop culture, sports, and social media allusions, amongst others.
➢Directions:
Work in a T-Chart format with two columns and do not duplicate
any of the citations you have used already.
1. Section One/ Chapters 1 - 15
Find three (3) allusions that seize your imagination the most.
Sections Two – Five/ Chapters 15 - 26
Find two (2) allusions that seize your imagination the most.
2. Type up each allusion and cite it with page number in the left column.
3. Type up a brief paragraph for each of your five (5) chosen allusions in the right
column, demonstrating clearly how the allusion works by analogy to reveal and
highlight specific thematic details from the story.
PLEASE NOTE: I WILL FOLLOW UP WITH A LIST OF SUGGESTED ALLUSIONS
BY THE END OF NEXT WEEK.
HOWEVER, I STRONGLY SUPPORT YOU TO LOOK FOR YOUR OWN!!!
Part THREE:
Language – ‘Low’/Informal and ‘High’/Formal DICTION
Diction – The author’s choice of words.
➢Directions:
Work in a T-Chart format with two columns and do not
duplicate any of the citations you have used already.
‘Low’/Informal Diction
1. Section One/ Chapters 1 - 15
Find three (3) examples of ‘low’ or informal diction that seize your imagination
the most.
Sections Two – Five/ Chapters 15 - 26
Find two (2) examples of ‘low’ or informal diction that seize your imagination
the most.
2. Type up each example of ‘low’ or informal diction and cite it with page number in
the left column.
3. Type up a brief paragraph for each of your five (5) chosen examples of ‘low’
diction in the right column, demonstrating clearly how the ‘low’ diction works to
reveal and highlight specific thematic details from the story.
‘High’/Formal Diction
4. Section One/ Chapters 1 - 15
Find three (3) examples of ‘high’ or formal diction that seize your imagination
the most.
Sections Two – Five/ Chapters 15 - 26
Find two (2) examples of ‘high’ or formal diction that seize your imagination
the most.
5. Type up each example of ‘high’ or formal diction and cite it with page number in
the left column.
6. Type up a brief paragraph for each of your five (5) chosen examples of ‘high’ or
formal diction in the right column, demonstrating clearly how the ‘high’ diction
works to reveal and highlight specific thematic details from the story.
Part FOUR:
POINT OF VIEW (POV)
1ST Person POV – First person point of view is inherently biased, being the
very limited perspective of the protagonist. So, when we are sleuthing for the
implications of any author’s use of first person POV, the first thing we are
reminded to ask ourselves is the question – is the narrator RELIABLE or
UNRELIABLE. And WHY did the author choose to tell the story through a voice or
perspective that is inherently questionable? In the case of Starr Carter, we have
a first person narrator who is recounting a traumatic re-memory of an encounter
with police that left her childhood friend bled to death in seconds at her knees.
She comes of age while confronting the fundamental breach of justice she
witnessed, alone. Thomas means for us to reckon with the truth of this
institutionalized violence as experienced by a sixteen-year-old black girl and
through her vulnerable and immensely honest voice, that leaves no physical detail
untouched, no corner of the story untold.
➢Directions:
Work in a T-Chart format with two columns and do not duplicate
any of the citations you have used already.
1. Section One/ Chapters 1 - 15
Find three (3) examples of 1st person point of view (POV) that seize your
imagination the most.
Sections Two – Five/ Chapters 15 - 26
Find two (2) examples of 1st person point of view (POV) that seize your
imagination the most.
2. Type up each of your five (5) examples of 1st person point of view (POV) and
cite it with page number in the left column.
3. Type up a brief paragraph for each of your five (5) chosen examples of 1st
person point of view (POV) in the right column, demonstrating clearly how the
examples of 1st person point of view (POV) work to reveal and highlight
specific thematic details from the story.
Answer to Chesterfield’s allusion –
A reader familiar with the Bible – that is, one who recognizes the biblical allusion – will recognize the witty point of
Lord Chesterfield’s story. For an allusion – a reference to something in history or previous literature – is, like a richly
connotative word or a symbol, a means of suggesting far more than it says. The one word “Joshua,” in the context of
Chesterfield’s toast, calls up in the reader’s mind the whole biblical story of how the Israelite captain stopped the sun
and the moon in order that the Israelites might finish a battle and conquer their enemies before night-fall (Josh. 10.1214). The force of the toast lies in its extreme economy; it says so much in so little, and it exercises the mind of the
reader to make the connection for himself.