Hush

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.