Analysis Of The Book 'Speak' By Laurie Halse Anderson

She battles between herself on whether she decides to speak up or stay quiet about her getting raped. In the end, Melinda was able to overcome this conflict and tell Rachel about it. In addition, Melinda has an external conflict with Andy Evans as he terrifies Melinda whenever he sees her. The climax of this story is when Andy Evans becomes trapped in the janitor’s closet with Melinda. The janitor’s closet is Melinda’s hideaway from the world. It’s a place where she can do whatever she wants without the judgement of anyone. On the last day of school, when she was about to leave, Andy walks in and slams Melinda back in the closet, trapping her in. He begins talking about how her big mouth of telling Rachel made her break up with him at prom. He goes on and on and when Melinda tries to leave, he locks the door and begins to forcefully kiss Melinda. Melinda screams at the top of her lungs while Andy was kissing her even throwing things around, but no one came for help. Everything stopped when she took a piece of broken mirror and put it up against his neck. From that point on Melinda was then a changed person. Although she was terrified of what just occurred moments before, Melinda was happy that she was able to speak

Again, throughout the whole book, Melinda has this odd feeling, she thinks that nobody likes her and is always down on herself. An example from the book that shows this behavior is at the beginning of the book, her first day of high school. "I have entered high school with the wrong hair, the wrong clothes, the wrong attitude. And I don't have anyone to sit with. I am outcast." (Anderson 4) As soon as she enters high school she doubts herself. It's almost as that she believes that since she has entered with the wrong clothes, the wrong hair, and nobody to sit with, that she will never fit in. This shows a sign of hopelessness, she is doubting herself to much. Another example of when Melinda shows sadness and hopelessness is when she hears about Rachelles Halloween party she is throwing. She says, "I knew I wouldn't get an invitation. I would be lucky to get an invitation to my own funeral." (Anderson 41) This shows Melinda again, being

Melinda isn't speaking to anyone, and no one will talk to her, except the new girl, Heather, who moved from the state of Ohio. Realistically, Heather being the new girl just wants to make friends. Heather doesn't know what is really going on with Melinda because she just moved to town. Heather has no idea what happened the night when Melinda called the police, which busted a summer party. In fact, no one knows, except for Melinda, what happened to her at the party? She is convinced that because she is a victim, no one understands her. The whole world, including her world, is out to get her and so it is best for her to remain silent.

Throughout the story, Melinda shows many signs of depression. Teens will often display changes in their thinking and behavior, lose their motivation, or become withdrawn. Psych Info Online presented some signs of depression that Melinda experienced in the novel. The signs Melinda indicated include: sadness, anxiety, feelings of hopelessness, withdrawal from friends, decreased interest of activities, social isolation, poor communication, low self-esteem, guilt, and

The story started in an ambiguous atmosphere ,as readers don’t know what happened to Melinda she refused to speak she only wants to live in her isolation. some people in their depression tries to speak, and others chooses to keep themselves silent and get stressed when they are given a heavy workload, like “why me ?” ,as they are too weak or shame to face the world around them ,and this exactly what happened to Melinda in this novel .People experiencing passive anger may not even realize they are angry, because passive angry maybe repressed, it can be hard to recognize. In this long term, these suppressed angry feelings can easily be a main reasson for psychological suffering. As readers can only notice that she carried a folded story that will be displayed through flashback

Melinda got tired of living the pain. “Jeans that fit, that’s a good start. I have to stay away from the closet. I will make myself normal. Forget the rest of it,” (chapter 59, page 125). Melinda is tired of feeling stressed. She is growing as a person. She doesn’t want to be stuck in that situation anymore. She is now taking control because having flashbacks and trying to forget is not helping.

Self) She sees herself as an outcast. the internal conflict of Melinda Sordino I that she was raped and does not tell anyone about it, causing her to become depressed. Her parents realize that she acts differently at home, but Melinda does not tell the reason why. In the story, Melinda fears a guy named "IT", who we later on know as Andy Evans. And teases her in the story for example on page 97 he hands Melinda a donut saying, "What a bite?". He is obviously teasing her and Melinda makes it noticeable that she fears him by running away. The authors purpose is to show that Andy is the reason for Melinda's depression. She expresses this by having Melinda call Andy

She doesn't talk to her family they use post it notes to communicate.Furthermore, she has problems with her friends. All of melinda's old friends hate her because she called the cops at a party.They dropped her like a hot pop tart on the cold friend

Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel, Speak wields symbolism to convey the theme: recovery from mentally detrimental situations is possible if individuals communicate their feelings. Melinda feels more empowered than ever in the spring, and she finds the courage to speak up for herself. The simple action of saying no to Heather may seem insignificant to many, because of “too much sun after a Syracuse winter”(180). All winter she feels frozen, and stuck in time, even though the spring sun melts her on the outside, she is still left “raw” and incomplete on the inside. In order to fully “thaw”, she must speak to someone about her assault with confidence. When Melinda first “melted” on the outside she caught a glimpse of the bliss sensation of empowerment. With this new motivation, she will be guided to recovery. One of but bring miraculous hope to Melinda. She describes her good morale as a “strange” feeling Melinda’s biggest steps towards recovery is standing up for herself. Heather asks for her help decorating for prom, even after the evil things she said to Melinda.

Melinda realizes that she has much more potential, places the past behind her, and begins to speak once more. Anderson's novel explores common teenage problems such as depression; Melinda exhibits external signs like cutting her wrist with a paperclip and biting her lip,

Melinda was an outcast and loner in high school who was overwhelmed, fearful, and confused with her life and her environment at school. She was always silent in class and afraid to speak in front of people. Many students today might feel the need to fit in with other people so they wouldn’t have to be looked down upon. As we take a look at Melinda’s life we’ll be able to see how she handles her daily conflicts. In the book, Speak, Melinda Sordino, an incoming freshman at Merryweather High, starts her year off with a terrible start. She’s stuck with a mean history teacher, by who she calls Mr. Neck and a whole bunch of other weird teachers like her English teacher of who she calls, Hairwomen, because of her crazy, uncombed

The novel Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, features a fourteen year old girl named Melinda Sordino who lives in Syracuse, New York. The novel takes place close to present day, with the book being written in 1999, which is when the novel was written. Melinda comes from a middle class background and her parents are blue collar workers. Her mother works at a department store at the local mall while her father works in an office building. Both of her parents spend a lot of time at work and Melinda is an only child, which means she spends most of her time alone. The story begins with Melinda entering high school in her freshman year. The summer after eighth grade, Melinda and her friends attended a high school party. At the party, Melinda is assaulted

During this time in the novel, Melinda feels like she can’t speak for herself and can’t tell people what really happened and why she had called the cops at the party. She feels that if she tells anyone that they would say that she’s just trying to get attention. Those examples were just a few times out of the many that they changed the

Every single person has a secret or an experience that they prefer not to talk about. In this case, Melinda Sordino suffers with the traumatic memory of rape. Within the novel, Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, Sordino’s entire life changes as Andy Evans takes advantage of her innocence by raping her during a party in August. As a result, Sordino’s trauma causes the alteration of her personality and perspective of the world. Sordino ventures throughout the story to rediscover herself as a person and faces several obstacles such as family troubles, disrespectful peers, and the person who has inflicted her with the most mental agony she can possibly withstand.

When she starts school that fall, no one talks to her about what happened and Melinda ends up staying quiet. She tries to act like the event never happened and this has a very bad impact on her relationships at school. On her first day, it can clearly be seen that she is a social outcast. No one talks to her as they blame her for being the reason the party got busted. This further pushes Melinda into silence, eventually leading her into depression.