83 pages 2 hours read

Jacqueline Woodson

Hush

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2000

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Themes

The Challenge of Navigating a New Identity

Content Warning: This section contains mentions of racial violence and a suicide attempt.

Hush is set within the context of a family entering the Witness Protection Program, having to relocate and start over for their own safety. This situation requires the erasure of their personal histories, their old lives and identities. Thus, identity is a major theme of the novel.

Protagonist Toswiah Green’s father, Jonathon, struggles the most with his changing identity. For Jonathan, personal history plays a large part in forming his identity, as his father was a lawyer, and his grandfather a judge. He asserts this history to Inspector Albert, explaining how, like offending Officers Randall and Dennis, being a policeman is essential to his identity. When this role is taken from Jonathan, upon the family’s relocation, he becomes depressed—even suicidal. Jonathan’s identity is not just rooted in his profession: race is an equally, if not more, important aspect of his identity. In an overwhelmingly white city, Jonathan’s family is one of the few Black families; furthermore, he is the only Black officer in his precinct. Both parts of Jonathan’s identity come into conflict, but ultimately incite the decision which sets the story in motion.

Related Titles

By Jacqueline Woodson

Study Guide

logo

After Tupac and D Foster

Jacqueline Woodson

After Tupac and D Foster

Jacqueline Woodson

Study Guide

logo

Another Brooklyn

Jacqueline Woodson

Another Brooklyn

Jacqueline Woodson

Study Guide

logo

If You Come Softly

Jacqueline Woodson

If You Come Softly

Jacqueline Woodson

Study Guide

logo

Locomotion

Jacqueline Woodson

Locomotion

Jacqueline Woodson

Study Guide

logo

Miracle's Boys

Jacqueline Woodson

Miracle's Boys

Jacqueline Woodson

Study Guide

logo

Red at the Bone

Jacqueline Woodson

Red at the Bone

Jacqueline Woodson

Plot Summary

logo

The House You Pass on the Way

Jacqueline Woodson

The House You Pass on the Way

Jacqueline Woodson