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
Justyce McAllister sees Melo Taylor drunkenly hunched over on the other side of the street. Melo is Justyce’s ex-girlfriend, and she’s currently “slumped” next to her car in the parking lot of a grocery store. When he crosses the street, she looks up and asks him why he’s there, but he ignores her, saying, “Damn, Melo, are you okay?” Shrinking away, she asks why he cares how she is—a question that hurts him, since he cares quite a bit about her. After all, he walked an entire mile to make sure she was all right, leaving his best friend Manny’s house even though Manny criticized him for always bending over backwards for Melo. All of this was to “keep his drunken disaster of an ex from driving,” and now she doesn’t even want to see him.
Justyce’s impulse to help his ex-girlfriend despite the complicated nature of their relationship shows that he is a supportive young man, the kind of person who wants to help people when he can. This is an important quality to keep in mind as Dear Martin progresses, since Nic Stone is interested in examining what happens when a bright black teenager like Justyce is unable to find the kind of support that he himself is so willing to give others.
Themes
Justyce explains to Melo that one of their mutual friends called to tell him that she got drunk and might need help. Apparently, Melo said she would call the police if anyone tried to stop her from driving herself. This, Justyce knows, is because Melo becomes quite dramatic when she’s drunk. Looking at her on the ground, he can’t help but find her pretty, even if she looks disheveled. In fact, he thinks she’s the “finest girl he’s ever laid eyes” on. Feeling affectionate, he brushes her hair out of her face, but she rears back, spilling the contents of her purse all over the ground. “Ugh, where are my keeeeeeeys?” she says, but before she can find them, Justyce picks them up and tells her that he won’t let her drive.
Dear Martin is a book about race and discrimination, but it’s also a coming-of-age story. Accordingly, Stone showcases Justyce’s attraction to Melo, demonstrating just how much he’s drawn to her even though she clearly doesn’t feel the same way about him. These romantic impulses signal Justyce’s willingness to support the people he cares about, even if they don’t necessarily return that support.
Themes
Unlocking Melo’s car, Justyce tries to pick her up and put her in the backseat. As he does so, she throws up on his sweatshirt, a “hoodie” he borrowed from Manny that is branded with the name of their prestigious prep school. After taking off the sweatshirt, Justyce tries again to pick Melo up, but she slaps in the face and tells him to leave her alone. Still, he tells her he’s not going to let her drive home, and he picks her up while she hits his back. Just when he finally gets her into the backseat and she falls asleep, a police siren sounds behind him. Justyce can hear the police officer approaching him, but he focuses on clipping Melo’s seatbelt so that it’s obvious to the officer that she isn’t about to drive.
In this moment, readers see that Justyce isn’t particularly worried about interacting with police officers. After all, he attends a well-respected private school and is completely sober, so he should have nothing to worry about. However, he fails to consider the unfortunate fact that a police officer might judge him based on an entirely different set of characteristics, ones over which he has no control, like the color of his skin. For the moment, he simply focuses on helping Melo, unworried that he himself is in danger.
Themes
Justyce doesn’t even have time to stand up before the white police officer wrenches him backward, causing his head to hit the doorframe. Once he’s pulled from the car, he finds himself slammed face-down onto the hood while the officer handcuffs him. “It hits him: Melo’s drunk beyond belief in the backseat of a car she fully intended to drive, yet Jus is the one in handcuffs,” Stone writes. The officer—whose name is Castillo—forces Justyce to the ground. As Justyce tries to explain the situation, Castillo punches him in the face and says, “Don’t you say shit to me, you son of a bitch. I knew your punk ass was up to no good when I saw you walking down the road with that goddamn hood on.”
When Officer Castillo says that he “knew” Justyce was “up to no good” when he saw him walking with his hood on, it becomes clear that he is racist. After all, Justyce is only trying to help Melo, but Castillo has judged him based on nothing other than what he’s wearing. It doesn’t matter to Castillo that Justyce attends a prestigious school or that he wants to keep Melo from driving drunk. All that matters to the officer is that Justyce is a black man wearing a hood. Consequently, it’s evident that Castillo is making unfair assumptions about Justyce’s moral character—assumptions that lead him to act with excessive violence without even letting Justyce explain what he’s doing.
Themes
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“I know your kind: punks like you wander the streets of nice neighborhoods searching for prey,” Castillo says to Justyce. “Just couldn’t resist the pretty white girl who’d locked her keys in her car, could ya?” Justyce thinks about how nonsensical this is. After all, if Melo had locked her keys in the car, how would he have been able to put her in the backseat? Furthermore, Melo is actually half black, though it’s true that she presents as white. But instead of correcting Officer Castillo, Justyce tries to levelheadedly reason with him, knowing that it’s imperative that he keep his anger “in check” and be “respectful.” Still, when he politely addresses Castillo, the enraged officer tells him to “shut the fuck up.” Consequently, Justyce sits in silence on the hard ground of the parking lot, scared and staring up at the glowing sign of the grocery store.
Castillo’s assertion that he “know[s]” Justyce’s “kind” is yet another indication that he’s racist, since he’s grouping Justyce into an entire category of people without even knowing anything about him. It’s worth noting that Justyce has done nothing to threaten Castillo, but Castillo acts as if Justyce is an incredibly dangerous person. In this way, readers see that Castillo is subjecting Justyce to racial profiling, jumping to unfair conclusions about him based on nothing but the fact that he’s black.
Themes
