Hush

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2000

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Dedication and Part 1, Chapters 1-5

Part 1, Chapters 6-10

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

The Challenge of Navigating a New Identity

Content Warning: This section contains mentions of racial violence and a suicide attempt.

Hush is set within the context of a family entering the Witness Protection Program, having to relocate and start over for their own safety. This situation requires the erasure of their personal histories, their old lives and identities. Thus, identity is a major theme of the novel.

Protagonist Toswiah Green’s father, Jonathon, struggles the most with his changing identity. For Jonathan, personal history plays a large part in forming his identity, as his father was a lawyer, and his grandfather a judge. He asserts this history to Inspector Albert, explaining how, like offending Officers Randall and Dennis, being a policeman is essential to his identity. When this role is taken from Jonathan, upon the family’s relocation, he becomes depressed—even suicidal. Jonathan’s identity is not just rooted in his profession: race is an equally, if not more, important aspect of his identity. In an overwhelmingly white city, Jonathan’s family is one of the few Black families; furthermore, he is the only Black officer in his precinct. Both parts of Jonathan’s identity come into conflict, but ultimately incite the decision which sets the story in motion. Although he knows he did the right thing in testifying against his colleagues, Jonathan struggles to adapt to his new situation and the new identity that comes with it.

In contrast to Jonathan, Shirley and Cameron are proactive in adapting to their new life. Shirley undergoes a drastic change, transforming from a reasonable, respected teacher to a devout Jehovah’s Witness who constantly speaks of a larger plan. Rather than mourn her old self, Shirley preemptively adopts a new identity. This becomes her coping mechanism, further explored in the theme The Role of Community in Coping with Trauma. However, her core remains, visible in her elation when she finally finds a job as a teacher again, as well as the tears she sheds at Cameron’s acceptance by Simon’s Rock. Cameron constantly vocalizes her hatred of the family’s move, and fights to retain who she is. This is even reflected in her choice of a new name—“Anna,” a simple palindrome which remains the same written forwards and backwards. “Anna” refuses to be forgotten.

As the novel is narrated by Toswiah, the reader witnesses her struggle with identity firsthand. Her challenge begins with the change of her name. Toswiah’s name connects her to her personal history, as she shares it with her grandmother and great-grandmother, the former of whom she is especially close to. Furthermore, she sees her name as both a unique identifier and an irrevocable fact; until the move, she had not met anyone else with the same name. Dealing with a change so fundamental to her identity is difficult for Toswiah, and she experiences a great deal of conflict about who she is under her new name (Evie). Toswiah’s journey is one of reconciling her two selves—her past as Toswiah, and her present as Evie. While it takes some time, she slowly finds peace when she joins her school’s track team. Recognized by the other girls as a good runner, she earns the nicknames “Daddy Longlegs” and “Spider Woman.” Thus, Evie begins to integrate different aspects of her identity by finding something that affirms her self-worth, offers her a community, and births welcome names.

The Pervasiveness of Racial Bias and Stereotypes in American Society

Police brutality and racial violence form the background of the novel: Jonathan Green’s decision to testify against former colleagues about a racially motivated shooting is what propels the story. Thus, racist conditioning in America is a major theme.

Leading up to the shooting of Raymond Taylor, Toswiah notes how her family barely experienced any direct discrimination based on race. At the time, her father Jonathan was the only Black officer in his precinct, with Denver being a predominantly white city. However, the Greens’ experience is an exceptional one, and a function of the “Blue Wall of Silence” (24). The emphasis on loyalty within the police creates a strong sense of community. This is not just seen in the Greens’ experience, but Jonathan’s conflict over having sent his former colleagues to jail by testifying.

The shooting reveals how deeply ingrained racism can be. Raymond Taylor, the boy who was shot and killed, was an honors student already receiving offers from colleges—far from the profile of a would-be criminal. When he was confronted by the police, he was standing still with his arms up; despite this, he was shot on sight. Officers Randall and Dennis try to cover up their mistake by claiming Raymond had been reaching for a gun, and that they had suspected gang violence. However, Jonathan points out to Inspector Albert that the Black population of Denver is too low for enough people to constitute a gang, as suggested by the offending officers. Rather, the police being primed to look for danger, along with their long history of racism, causes Officers Randall and Dennis to feel unnecessarily threatened when they encounter a Black boy.

Racial bias is not restricted to police; Toswiah and her family experience it all around, following the shooting. When Jonathan decides to testify, he loses his status among his fellow officers, and the rest of the family is ostracized. Furthermore, Toswiah notes how quick people are to believe her father a liar, based on rumors propagated by Officer Randall’s son (and Cameron’s crush), Joseph. People would rather believe a Black man to be a liar, than accept the reality of a racially motivated killing within their community. In times of crisis, tribalism is especially strong; thus, Jonathan finds himself othered as both a policeman and a Black man.

The sudden instability of Jonathan’s world is best illustrated when he looks at a photograph of his precinct and declares he doesn’t feel safe anymore. Once, Jonathan was tasked with protecting the city. Now, he himself feels endangered by his former colleagues, his former community. This is complemented by Toswiah noticing how, despite everyone being dressed in the same uniform in the photograph, Jonathan stands out. The shooting forces Jonathan and his family to face the reality of being Black in a predominantly white society.

The Role of Community in Coping with Trauma

Toswiah and her family’s world is forever changed when they are forced to relocate and erase their histories, following Jonathan’s decision to testify. The sudden nature of the change is overwhelming for everyone, and one of the themes explored in the novel is the ability—and inability—to cope with stress and trauma.

Even before the family leaves Denver, Shirley seems to have found a way to cope with the change. She buys scriptures from visiting Jehovah’s Witnesses the morning before their departure, which Toswiah notes as uncharacteristic behavior. In Denver, Shirley had been a beloved teacher; her identity and self-worth had been tied to her profession. In her new life, Shirley needs something to fill the void left by the loss of her vocation—and religion becomes this replacement. She throws herself into religion with fervor, applying the same passion and rigor to the Bible as she did her work. The assurance of a better life in exchange for faith is compelling, and Shirley’s faith consumes not just her own life, but those of her family. She finds solace in other Jehovah’s Witnesses and urges her daughters to attend Kingdom Hall, their place of worship.

Cameron’s way of coping with the move is to cry, scream, and fight hard to retain her past self. She takes Toswiah’s passing advice to heart, focusing on reaching the “far, far future” (87) to escape her current life. Thus, she throws herself into her studies, having identified early acceptance by Simon’s Rock College as a way out of her situation. While social at heart, Cameron as Anna refuses to form connections in her new home.

Toswiah is the more introverted sister, but still feels a deep sense of loss over the few she left behind in Denver. She does not make friends easily, making Lulu and Grandma’s absence all the more painful to her; she feels lonely for a long time in her new home. However, things start to look up when she joins the school’s track team, which provides both an outlet for her frustration and an avenue for new friendships. Struggling as she is with her new identity, running also provides Toswiah with purpose, through Coach Leigh’s belief in her potential.

Unlike the rest of his family, Jonathan finds himself unable to cope with his new life—and the loss of his sense of justice. He has lost the most in the move: Along with the loss of his identity as a policeman, he also experiences ongoing conflict over having sent his former colleagues to prison with his testimony. These conflicts lead to depression, causing Jonathan to isolate himself from his family, until he eventually attempts suicide. It is only following this incident that he receives consistent care, in the form of medication and therapy, and begins to heal.

The characters’ different journeys bring to light the importance of community in healing from trauma. Shirley finds community among fellow Jehovah’s Witnesses, Anna sets her sights on a place that will hopefully offer both a community and an escape, and Toswiah is thrilled by the camaraderie of her track team. Jonathan, on the other hand, is robbed of his community in Denver and left without opportunity to form a similar one in his new home. This isolation contributes significantly to his deterioration.