“He Cuts Roses that Have Blooms as Big as My Palms”: Floriography, the Black Gardening Movement, and Environmental Justice in The Hate U Give

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Abstract This essay explores the numerous, but underexamined, references to nature and the environment in Angie Thomas’s acclaimed young adult novel The Hate U Give. Not only is the narrative set in a neighborhood called “Garden Heights,” but all its municipal features are named after flowers or trees: Magnolia Avenue, Carnation Street, Cedar Grove. Additionally, both major and minor characters in the novel—Big Mav, Mrs. Pearl, etc.—are avid and talented gardeners. I examine these details through the lenses of floriography and the Black gardening movement, respectively. Doing so gives new literary, cultural, and historical meaning to events in The Hate U Give, and they also augment the text’s socio-political commentary. Ultimately, the references to plants, horticulture, and nature in The Hate U Give introduce issues of environmentalism and ecoracism, adding a new facet to the social justice themes that the narrative addresses.