Analytical Practice for On The Come Up

How is Bri's Creative Process Represented on pages 107-109 of 'On The Come Up'?

When Bri enters the studio and hears the beat, she can’t just use the lyrics she’s already written. She has to do something different; she is going to make a hit. Bri is inspired to write her song through her own experiences, from the injustices she’s faced–being singled out by the security guards, being called a “hoodlum”, and her talent being ignored just because of her skin colour.

‘What you want the world to know?’ I shrug. He wheels his chair closer to me, leans forward, and asks, ‘What’s the world done to you lately?’ It put my family in a messed-up situation. It pinned me to the ground. It called me a hoodlum. ‘It’s done a hell of a lot,’ I say. (Thomas, On The Come Up, 108)

The world has caused Bri a lot of pain and suffering. The quotation highlights the challenges that Bri faces. It shows the reader how she is struggling to overcome adversity and feels that she is being unfairly judged by others. The quotation also suggests that Bri is beginning to realize that she needs to take control of her own life. Through her song, she’s going to fight back against the negativity holding her down. Her use of the word "hoodlum" shows the impact of being pinned down by Long and Tate. She mentions how she can’t escape that day as if the word has been branded on her forehead. When Bri lists how the world has messed her up, it shows her anger toward that world. All she knows is hate towards people like her, and all she knows is the struggle of people like her. A world that was supposed to protect her and show her the beauty of life, ripped it all away because of her looks. Through the narration style stream of consciousness, the reader can understand Bri's thinking and actions. Since it is not third person, the reader doesn't have to guess what Bri is going to do, it's as if her actions are your actions. The first-person point of view fills in a lot of the missing gaps if it were third person. What makes this book unique is that Angie Thomas herself went through the same experiences as Bri. Growing up in Jackson, Mississippi she experienced racism and bullying, and numerous amounts of injustices. Thomas knows the emotional scars that being black can cause.

Work Cited

Thomas, Angie. On the Come Up. HarperCollins Publishers, 2020.