Analysis Of The Book Speak

What would you do if the person you care the most about was suffering from depression? In Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the narrator, Melinda Sordino, suffers from depression and insecurity after being molested by a senior, Andy Evans. Over time, her emotions change positively. In her art class, she was assigned trees as her project to express emotion. In this novel, trees speak for her because they represent her life, growth, and her refusal to speak.

Harriet Tubman was among the greatest fighters for justice in her time and was an inspiration to others to fight for what they believe in, but she along with many others who fight experienced it themselves. When she was younger, “She knew that her brothers and sisters, her father and mother, and all the other people who lived in the quarter, men, women and children, were slaves. At the same time, someone had taught her where to look for the North Star, the star that stayed constant, not rising in the east and setting in the west as the other stars appeared to do; and told her that anyone walking toward the North could use that star as a guide. She knew about fear, too. Sometimes at night, or during the day, she heard the furious galloping of horses, not just one horse, several horses, thud of the hoofbeats along the road, jingle of harness. She saw the grown folks freeze into stillness, not moving, scarcely breathing, while they listened. She could not remember who first told her that those furious hoofbeats meant the patrollers were going past, in pursuit of a runaway. Only the slaves said patterollers, whispering the word” (Petry). Living with her family as a slave, she learned all the things she needed to know to do her job in the future as the conductor of the Underground Railroad, she learned about the North star, and she learned about how you should not get caught by the patrollers. Perturbed by the thought of the fate of her family and her future, she escaped to Philadelphia but “Rather than remaining in the safety of the North, Tubman made it her mission to rescue her family and others living in slavery via the Underground Railroad” (Biography.com editors). She made it her mission to save others and take

     When her father passed away she had nobody to tell her what to do and how to act. This was very devastating and she had a hard time dealing with change. So much so that she wouldn't let the police take the body of her father out of the house for three days after his death. The only thing that was constant in her house was the slave

In the story “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, David Petrakis is the voice melinda does not have. He has the ability to do what she cannot. In one part of the story David stands up to Mr. Neck after he constantly abuses his students and rants about his son not getting a job. This leads to a full scale lawsuit where David claims his right to the first amendment was violated. Melinda felt that David was indirectly standing up for her when he yells at Mr.Neck because he had the ability to say what she never could. Melinda calls david a “hero” and thinks “He says a million things without saying a word. I make a note to study Petrakis. I have never heard a more eloquent silence” (Anderson 57). Melinda looks at David as if he has saved her.

One night Harriet Tubman described it as a turning point in her life. She said that she saw many escaped slaves, but none of them went back to help the others. To Harriet Tubman, slavery to her is being there with the devil. Harriet Tubman had two rights, and that is liberty or death, she also wants nobody to take her back alive and that she will fight for her freedom. She escaped from slavery in 1849, and when she reached the North, she told herself that she’s not free until her family is free. Throughout all the trips that she made, she never lost a slave. For this reason, there were many rewards for catching her. In total she saved over thousands of slaves, and is now the most remembered black person in the

Speaking out is a tough task for many people that have dealt with horrible, traumatic situations. In the novel Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character, Melinda, is one of those people who lost their voice. To be able to understand another person’s emotions, feelings, and situations is very difficult to do, especially because of how our society has formed and became a very judgmental place. Melinda Sordino starts her freshman year at Merryweather High School in Syracuse, New York, to a terrible start; she is a victim of a sexual assault and loses her confidents and voice to speak out. The more she interacts and makes new friends is how she starts to reach out and become more self-sufficient. Few weeks into school Melinda’s only

Within “SPEAK,” Laurie Halse Anderson uses Melinda’s artwork to express Melinda. At the Beginning of the story Melinda gets a year long art project to draw a tree. At the beginning, she struggles because she is still feeling pain and depression from getting raped. But, Throughout the story, she slowly grows and comes out of her “shell,” and becomes better and better with it; So by the

Melinda Sordino, the character in the novel Speak, written by Laurie Halse Anderson. She is an outcast, coward, and a negative person. Melinda Sordino is an outcast. '' Or I could crawl behind the trash can. Or maybe I could dump my lunch straight into the trash and keep moving right on out the door '' (Anderson 8). This quotation clearly demonstrates that Melinda is an outcast. She cannot even think a person she could sit. On the first day, Melinda gets into the auditorium and everyone divides into their clans. She used to be a part of the Plain Janes but now she labelled herself an outcast, she is clanless. Melinda does not see the point in finding her ex-friends. She knows it is not going to work. The only student talks to her as a friend is Heather, new to here, but she

This memoir covers the life of Harriet Tubman who was a slave known for her extraordinary chip away at the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman was conceived in Dorchester County, Maryland on March, 1822. This novel discusses how Harriet Tubman had the capacity escape bondage in the south in the year of 1849 and looked for some kind of employment in the north. Particularly in Philadelphia, where she worked in inns to raise enough cash to bolster her needs. She would then migrate to Canada and in the long run New York. Harriet Tubman came back to Maryland in 1850 interestingly since her break. Her first take was to help her niece in a plot of getting away from the merciless imprisonments of subjugation in Baltimore, Maryland. The up and coming ten years ended up being an extremely key point the legend of Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman as often as possible set her life in absolute risk as she assembled and free relatives and different slaves living in the territory. Amid the Civil War, Tubman acted as an attendant and a spy for the Union armed force in South Carolina, where she was known as General Tubman. After the war, Tubman came back to Auburn, New York, where she talked at ladies ' suffrage gatherings with other conspicuous figures, for example, Susan B. Anthony. Numerous are mindful of the considerable deed that Harriet Tubman executed to free slaves in the south. Then again, individuals are still left considerably unaware about in which the way they were safeguarded and

Harriett Tubman showed herself to be a true humanitarian towards the other slaves. She took on the leadership role to help other. Despite the fact she was on the most wanted list for the Confederate Army’s list, she was a wanted dead or alive. Harriett exhibited the character traits of strength, tenacity and determination as she helped people escape from slavery. One important quality she showed was the ability to motivate other salves to flee the plantation for freedom, to overcome the fear of being a slave and not afraid of being a free man or woman. Through her determination, strength and tenacity other slave were able to visualize their own freedom.

Harriet Tubman was brave, she showed this by saving countless lives and risking her own. During a ten-year span she made 19 trips to the south to take over 300 slaves to freedom. Harriet proudly says that “she never lost a single passenger.” Harriet was fearless, she would take slaves to freedom during the night, pitch black with only a lantern to light the way. Running to freedom during the night she was able to avoid slave catchers. Slave catchers were brutal. They used dogs, whips, and guns to hunt down slaves for money. And for Harriet to have enough courage to confront these slaves if caught… it took a lot of bravery.

“Cruelty is contagious in uncivilized communities.” In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs provides a portrayal of her life as a black slave girl in the 1800s. Though Harriet described herself as having yellowish brown skin; she was the child of a black mother and a white father. “I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away.” Born with one drop of black blood, regardless of the status of her white father, she inherited the classification of black and was inevitably a slave. Harriet endured years of physical and mental abuse from her master and witnessed firsthand how slaves were treated based on the color of their skin. Years of abuse can only be taken for so long, like many

Harriet Jacobs, in her narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, was born into slavery in the south. While her youth contained “six years of happy childhood,” a few tragedies and mistresses later, Jacobs spent many years in pain under the possession of her cruel five-year-old mistress, Emily Flint, and Emily’s father, Dr. Flint. Once able to obtain freedom, Jacobs spent most of her life working for the Anti-Slavery office in New York, in hope that one day she could make a difference in the world. “She sought to win the respect and admiration of her readers for the courage with which she forestalled abuse and for the independence with which she chose a lover rather than having one forced on her” (Jacobs 921). Linda Brett, the pseudonym that Jacobs uses to narrate her life story, endures the harsh behavior women slaves were treated with in the south during the nineteenth century. The dominant theme of the corruptive power and psychological abuse of slavery, along with symbolism of good and evil, is demonstrated throughout her narrative to create a story that exposes the terrible captivity woman slaves suffered. The reality of slavery in the past, versus slavery today is used to reveal how the world has changed and grown in the idea of racism and neglect.

Slavery was a horrible institution that dehumanized a race of people. Female slave bondage was different from that of men. It wasn't less severe, but it was different. The sexual abuse, child bearing, and child care responsibilities affected the females's pattern of resistance and how they conducted their lives. Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, demonstrates the different role that women slaves had and the struggles that were caused from having to cope with sexual abuse.

The book Speak by Laurie Anderson is a book about how Melinda Sordino overcomes the troubles in her life, and how she learned to speak up for herself. The author uses a lot of archetypes and allusions throughout the book to add a fuller description to the events Melinda had gone through, which will help the readers to better understand what Anderson is trying to tell.