Dear Martin Essay Questions

Throughout Dear Martin, the protagonist, Justyce, writes letters to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. These letters offer us insight into Justyce's thoughts and feelings as the events of the novel unfold. Choose one of Jus's letters to Dr. King and analyze what it reveals to us about Jus's character, feelings, and motivations. What do we learn about Jus?

Perhaps one of the most important letters to Dr. King in Dear Martin is Jus's first letter, which appears right after Chapter 1. In the letter, Jus reflects on his violent encounter with Officer Castillo from the previous chapter, in which Officer Castillo assumes Jus is committing a crime rather than helping out his friend. Notably, the letter shows us that Jus is aware of the greater political climate surrounding him. Jus mentions Shemar Carson, a seventeen-year-old Black boy who was shot by a white police officer in Nevada. He tells Dr. King that he never thought he would end up like Shemar, because he is an upstanding student and he pays careful attention to appearing respectable in public. However, as Jus will discover later in the novel, his education, intelligence, and clean record will not save him from violent encounters with the police. Ultimately, what Jus will discover is that police brutality affects the lives of all Black people, no matter their socioeconomic status or how much thought they put into their appearance.

Choose a motif to trace as you read Dear Martin. How does this motif develop as the novel progresses? What does this motif tell us about the characters or their state of mind?

An important motif throughout Dear Martin is that of lack of sleep. Many characters admit to not being able to get any sleep, particularly Jus, who is often troubled and therefore unable to sleep peacefully. One moment where lack of sleep deserves a closer look is in the middle of Part 1. Jus has just won the statewide debate tournament, and presumably both deserves and can now take the time to get some good rest, but he can't fall asleep. Part of the reason behind his trouble is the fact that his romantic advances towards SJ were rejected right after their big win. Additionally, as he and SJ avoid each other, Jus learns "that Tavarrius Jenkins, a sixteen-year-old black kid shot by police while trying to help an older white woman in a Lexus, has died from his injuries" (85). In this way, we see how the emotionally charged events of Jus's life mirror the turbulent sociopolitical climate that America is grappling with in the current day. If sleep allows for an escape from our waking reality, then Jus is unable to escape his day-to-day problems as well as the larger reality that Black people keep getting murdered by police officers across the country with, it seems, little to no punishment or negative consequences for those police officers. This essay will trace the motif of lack of sleep with the understanding that sleep represents a kind of "escape" from our day-to-day lives.

Chapter 14 is just three words: "BANG. BANG. BANG" (120). Analyze this chapter and the effect it has on the rest of the novel. Take note of how the words are placed on the page and analyze what effect their placement causes.

In Chapter 14, we realize that someone—Jus or Manny—has been shot by the white man in the Suburban. We are not given details of this scene and instead are given only three words, which are written in a vertical column down the page. These words communicate the panic that the boys are feeling at this moment as well as the inescapable violence that they are being forced to endure. These three words take up the whole page, which means the reader is unable to escape them—it is just as much as a shock for the reader as it is for Jus and Manny in this moment. Following this chapter, there is a pause, and we enter Part 2 of Dear Martin without a clear picture of what happened in Manny's car.

Throughout the novel, Jus and Manny listen to Deuce Diggs's music. Explain what relevance Deuce Diggs's music has on Manny and Jus's lives.

Deuce Diggs is playing through the stereo in Manny's car on the day Garrett Tison shoots and kills him. On that day, Manny was listening to Deuce Digs in an effort to calm his rage at the fact that Jared's father has pressed charges against Manny for hitting his son. However, Deuce Diggs's music does not simply have a calming effect. Rather, it speaks to the realities in Manny's life, and as he listens to Deuce Diggs's music, Manny begins to open his eyes to what's going on around him. In this way, Deuce Diggs's music acts as a vehicle for Manny's political awakening in Dear Martin.

Is justice served in Dear Martin? Why or why not? Use specific examples from the text to back up your arguments.

At the end of Part 1, Officer Garrett Tison shoots Jus and Manny, and Manny is killed. A grand jury decides to indict Tison for the felony charges of aggravated assault and murder. However, the jury at the trial only finds Tison guilty of aggravated assault plus two misdemeanors. They are undecided about the murder charge, and it is declared a mistrial. This means that there would have to be a second trial later on. Before that can happen, however, Tison is murdered in his jail cell by three inmates. While legal justice is not served in Dear Martin, one can argue that a certain kind of community justice has been meted out.