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Chapter 20
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
A news anchor reports that a fire broke out at Garrett Tison’s house. This fire, the anchor says, was “deliberately set.” Going on, the anchor adds that the police have “apprehended three teenage boys who were seen in the area on the night of the incident.” “Tison’s trial in connection with the January shooting that left one teenager dead and another wounded is set to begin approximately five weeks from today,” the anchors says.
Despite Justyce and SJ’s newfound happiness, things continue to get worse surrounding Officer Tison’s trial. Although the burning of Tison’s house won’t necessarily hurt the jury’s chances of finding him guilty, it does play into the narrative that he is the victim of dangerous young black men, not the other way around. This, in turn, increases the likelihood that the jury will go easy on him.
Themes
