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 is on the witness stand at Garrett Tison’s hearing. He has just delivered his testimony and thinks that everything has gone well. However, Tison’s attorney has just taken the floor to subject him to a cross-examination, and he can immediately tell that she’s “out for blood.” To begin, she gets him to admit that he and Manny were driving around instead of going on a hike, which is what they had originally planned to do. This, Justyce is forced to explain, is because Manny was upset after having heard that Jared’s parents were going to press charges against him for assaulting Jared. When Justyce is forced to say that Manny told him he hit Jared for making “an inappropriate joke,” the attorney says, “Hmm. Sounds like a fairly familiar set of circumstances, doesn’t it, Mr. McAllister?”
From the very beginning of Justyce’s cross-examination, it’s clear that Tison’s attorney wants to portray him and Manny as young men who respond to insults with violence. This will later help her insinuate that he and Manny actually were threatening Garrett Tison, prompting him to discharge his weapon.
Themes
Tison’s attorney continues with her cross-examination, bringing up the fact that Justyce assaulted Blake and Jared at Blake’s birthday party. “It wasn’t unprovoked,” Justyce clarified. As he tries to explain the circumstances surrounding his fight with Blake and Jared on that night, the attorney asks a number of confusing questions. When she asks him to explain what happened more clearly, he says that he can’t remember everything in very vivid detail. She then suggests that this is because he’d been drinking, and he’s forced to admit that this is true. “Mr. McAllister,” the attorney says, “now that we’ve established that both you and Mr. Rivers had a history of responding violently to perceived verbal slights, let’s return to January twenty-sixth of this year.”
Again, Tison’s attorney goes out of her way to suggest that Manny and Justyce tend to respond “violently to perceived verbal slights.” In doing so, she frames them as rash and angry individuals who would pose a threat to someone like Garrett Tison.
Themes
At this point, Tison’s attorney asks Justyce to read a clause from the City of Atlanta Code of Ordinances—a clause that prohibits excessive noise in public spaces. Once Justyce reads this aloud, the attorney says that Justyce and Manny were “in violation of the law” because they “refus[ed] to lower the volume of [their] music.” Going on, the attorney says, “Did the music you were listening to contain the line Here comes the fun…wait for the sound of the gun?” Justyce points out that this lyric has been taken out of context, but the attorney ignores him, adding that Manny swore at Tison and made “an obscene gesture” that could have been “perceived as a threat.”
In the same way that the media took the picture of Justyce dressed as a “thug” out of context, Tison’s lawyer now presents one of many lyrics in the song Manny and Justyce were listening to at the time of the incident, ultimately suggesting that the music itself was threatening. Furthermore, she upholds that Manny’s “obscene gesture” could have been “perceived as a threat.” What she fails to mention is that Garrett Tison was screaming insults and slurs at Manny and Justyce, blatantly displaying his anger in a way that was much more threatening than anything the boys themselves were doing.
Themes
“Are you aware that my client witnessed the shooting death of his partner by a young man physically similar to yourself?” Tison’s attorney asks Justyce. She then lets the court know that Justyce spoke to Quan, who “connected” him to “a group of young men with extensive criminal records and known gang affiliations.” She also gets Justyce to admit that he met with these “young men shortly before they deliberately” set Tison’s house on fire. As Justyce tries to clarify the conditions surrounding this visit, the attorney cuts him off, saying, “No further questions, Your Honor.”
It’s notable that Tison’s attorney says that Quan is “physically similar” to Justyce. Throughout the entire novel, Stone never mentions that Justyce and Quan look alike. Even if this were true, though, it would have little relevance—after all, Tison knew at the time of his interaction with Justyce and Manny that Quan was in jail. Consequently, he wouldn’t have needed to worry that he was facing the same person who killed his partner. Because of this, the attorney’s implication in this moment is quite racist, as she effectively suggests that Tison had the right to discriminate against Justyce simply because he was a black man who vaguely resembled a completely different person.
Themes
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