Concrete Rose

by

Angie Thomas

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Concrete Rose makes teaching easy.
Shawn is the crown (i.e., the leader) of the King Lords gang. He’s in his early 20s and his best friend is Dre, Maverick’s older cousin. Shawn, like Dre, sees it as his responsibility to look out for and mentor Maverick and the other “li’l homies.” Thus, when Dre is murdered, Shawn agrees to follow through with Dre’s wishes: that Maverick not sell drugs for the gang, and that Maverick not take on the responsibility of murdering whoever murdered Dre. Ultimately, Shawn isn’t able to protect Maverick because on Thanksgiving, he’s arrested. What starts as a traffic stop turns into an arrest and incarceration when the police find Shawn’s unregistered gun and trace it to a murder. Maverick expects Shawn to be in prison for a number of years.

Shawn Quotes in Concrete Rose

The Concrete Rose quotes below are all either spoken by Shawn or refer to Shawn. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Masculinity and Fatherhood Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

One of them yell out, “Don’t let them punk you, Li’l Don and Li’l Zeke!”

It don’t matter that my pops been locked up for nine years or that King’s pops been dead almost as long. They still Big Don, the former crown, and Big Zeke, his right-had man. That make me Li’l Don and King Li’l Zeke. Guess we not old enough to go by our own names yet.

Related Characters: Maverick Carter (speaker), King, Pops, Pops, Ma, Dre, Shawn
Page Number: 5
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“Weak,” P-Nut says, behind a fake cough. The big homies smirk. I’m nothing but a joke to them.

I storm toward the church. I found Dre with bullets in his head. The least Shawn could do is let me handle the dude who killed him.

But nah. I’m just a li’l kid who can’t live up to his pops’s name.

I’m gon’ prove all them fools wrong one day. Believe that.

Related Characters: Maverick Carter (speaker), P-Nut (speaker), Pops, Dre, King Jr./Li’l Man/Seven, Shawn, Ant
Page Number: 128
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

“Everybody in the set already think I’m soft, Shawn.”

“So?” he says. “Forget what them fools think. You gotta live for you and Dre now, you feel me? You can do everything he didn’t get a chance to do.”

I never thought of that.

“Raise your son. Be the best father you can be,” Shawn says. “That’s how you honor Dre. A’ight?”

Related Characters: Maverick Carter (speaker), Shawn (speaker), Ma, Dre, King Jr./Li’l Man/Seven, Ant
Page Number: 157
Explanation and Analysis:

“Son, one of the biggest lies ever told is that Black men don’t feel emotions. Guess it’s easier to not see us as human when you think we’re heartless. Fact of the matter is, we feel things. Hurt, pain, sadness, all of it. We got a right to show them feelings as much as anybody else.”

Related Characters: Mr. Wyatt (speaker), Maverick Carter, Dre, Shawn
Page Number: 163-64
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

The person who killed my cousin got killed.

It’s been a weird three weeks since it happened. ‘Cause Ant was shot at a school function it was all over the news. His parents cried on TV, and I realized he had parents. Like Dre. Some kids at school were really tore up over his death, and I realized he had friends. Like Dre. At the stadium, he got a memorial in the parking lot with flowers and balloons. Like Dre.

Everybody get mourned by somebody, I guess. Even murderers.

Related Characters: Maverick Carter (speaker), Pops, Dre, Shawn, Ant
Page Number: 173
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

Lisa stare at me real hard. “You’re selling drugs with King again, aren’t you?”

I sigh. “Man, look—”

“You know what? Don’t answer that,” she says. “Do whatever you want, Maverick. Me and my baby will be all right.”

“There you go, acting like I won’t be around.”

“Because you won’t!” Lisa says. “I make plans, knowing that. My baby needs one of us to think about the future.”

She don’t get it. She really don’t get it.

Related Characters: Maverick Carter (speaker), Lisa Montgomery (speaker), Pops, Mr. Wyatt, Dre, King Jr./Li’l Man/Seven, Shawn
Page Number: 306
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Concrete Rose LitChart as a printable PDF.
Concrete Rose PDF

Shawn Quotes in Concrete Rose

The Concrete Rose quotes below are all either spoken by Shawn or refer to Shawn. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Masculinity and Fatherhood Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

One of them yell out, “Don’t let them punk you, Li’l Don and Li’l Zeke!”

It don’t matter that my pops been locked up for nine years or that King’s pops been dead almost as long. They still Big Don, the former crown, and Big Zeke, his right-had man. That make me Li’l Don and King Li’l Zeke. Guess we not old enough to go by our own names yet.

Related Characters: Maverick Carter (speaker), King, Pops, Pops, Ma, Dre, Shawn
Page Number: 5
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“Weak,” P-Nut says, behind a fake cough. The big homies smirk. I’m nothing but a joke to them.

I storm toward the church. I found Dre with bullets in his head. The least Shawn could do is let me handle the dude who killed him.

But nah. I’m just a li’l kid who can’t live up to his pops’s name.

I’m gon’ prove all them fools wrong one day. Believe that.

Related Characters: Maverick Carter (speaker), P-Nut (speaker), Pops, Dre, King Jr./Li’l Man/Seven, Shawn, Ant
Page Number: 128
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

“Everybody in the set already think I’m soft, Shawn.”

“So?” he says. “Forget what them fools think. You gotta live for you and Dre now, you feel me? You can do everything he didn’t get a chance to do.”

I never thought of that.

“Raise your son. Be the best father you can be,” Shawn says. “That’s how you honor Dre. A’ight?”

Related Characters: Maverick Carter (speaker), Shawn (speaker), Ma, Dre, King Jr./Li’l Man/Seven, Ant
Page Number: 157
Explanation and Analysis:

“Son, one of the biggest lies ever told is that Black men don’t feel emotions. Guess it’s easier to not see us as human when you think we’re heartless. Fact of the matter is, we feel things. Hurt, pain, sadness, all of it. We got a right to show them feelings as much as anybody else.”

Related Characters: Mr. Wyatt (speaker), Maverick Carter, Dre, Shawn
Page Number: 163-64
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

The person who killed my cousin got killed.

It’s been a weird three weeks since it happened. ‘Cause Ant was shot at a school function it was all over the news. His parents cried on TV, and I realized he had parents. Like Dre. Some kids at school were really tore up over his death, and I realized he had friends. Like Dre. At the stadium, he got a memorial in the parking lot with flowers and balloons. Like Dre.

Everybody get mourned by somebody, I guess. Even murderers.

Related Characters: Maverick Carter (speaker), Pops, Dre, Shawn, Ant
Page Number: 173
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

Lisa stare at me real hard. “You’re selling drugs with King again, aren’t you?”

I sigh. “Man, look—”

“You know what? Don’t answer that,” she says. “Do whatever you want, Maverick. Me and my baby will be all right.”

“There you go, acting like I won’t be around.”

“Because you won’t!” Lisa says. “I make plans, knowing that. My baby needs one of us to think about the future.”

She don’t get it. She really don’t get it.

Related Characters: Maverick Carter (speaker), Lisa Montgomery (speaker), Pops, Mr. Wyatt, Dre, King Jr./Li’l Man/Seven, Shawn
Page Number: 306
Explanation and Analysis: