Starr Carter is the sixteen-year-old protagonist of The Hate U Give. The novel is presented in the first person from her point-of-view. Starr lives in the urban neighborhood of Garden Heights, but attends private school in a nearby affluent neighborhood called Riverton Hills. This results in a split identity for Starr. She monitors her speech and behavior among her white peers, because she is one of the only African American students at the school, and she feels like she must represent her entire race. In other ways, Starr is a typical teenager; she loves basketball and the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, she is fashion conscious, and she has a Tumblr blog. She thinks her parents are corny, but secretly admires them.
The theme of a story is important because a story's theme is part of the reason why the author wrote the story. The author has a message he wants to share with readers, and he uses his story as a way to get that message across.
