Sticking with the idea that the social issues with race that we experience today are a direct result of our history, the novel The Hate u Give uses metaphor to describe Starr's experience of growing up in Garden Heights. A recurring image throughout the book is the rose. Maverick regularly tends to his roses and they are a clear metaphor for his family. He "waters them like he’s supposed to, but for some reason they’re dry looking”, and he tells the roses "y’all gotta do better than this.” As life becomes more complicated in Garden Heights and Maverick decides to move his family on, taking his dying rose bush with him, there is a clear reference to hope where again the author uses the rose as a metaphor for Maverick's family. When Starr asks if the roses will be all right, Maverick replies that they are “a li’l damaged, but alive. I'm gon’ try something different with them. Putting them in new soil can be like hitting a reset button.” We can take this as a reference to the continuing socio-economic problems caused by systemic racism that continue today, the new soil could be richer in nutrients and this could be a metaphor for material wealth.

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