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Chapter 23
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Dear Martin, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Privilege, Entitlement, and Implicit Bias
Appearances and Assumptions
Support, Acceptance, and Belonging
Opportunity and Upward Mobility
The Media and Public Discourse
Summary
Analysis
In the “top story” on Atlanta’s local news station, an anchor explains that Garrett Tison was killed by fellow inmates just two days after his trial. “Three men have been implicated in the matter,” the anchor says, “two of whom were already awaiting trial on murder charges.”
This brief news clipping clarifies the details surrounding Tison’s death, suggesting that his fellow prisoners were angry that he wasn’t convicted of murder. This recalls Quan’s story about the white teenager he met in juvenile detention, the one who murdered his father but only spent 60 days in a “youth development campus.” The jury’s unwillingness to convict Tison of murder aligns with the narrative that white people get off more easily than black people, even after committing heinous crimes.
Themes
