Commentary On Melinda's Speak

Metaphors in ‘Speak’ show that Melinda’s past peers unintentionally destroy her self-respect, resulting in a feeling of dread engulfing Melinda, her. Thus, Some individuals tend to jump to conclusions without thinking about others .On her first day of high school, the entire ninth grade population holds a grudge against Melinda for calling the cops at a summer party without knowing it was because she was raped. During her lunchtime, Melinda “stand[s] in the centre aisle of the auditorium” as if she is “a wounded zebra in a National Geographic special, looking for someone, anyone, to sit next to.” (Anderson 5). Melinda, standing surrounded with hundreds of people, yet still alone, shows that she has no support from anyone. Melinda is hurt so strongly by others rude attitude towards her to the point she feels as if she has been physically wounded, even hunted, by the students from her school. Melinda is seen as if she betrayed her peers by calling the police, lowering her certainty along with her self-esteem, which interrupts her mental ageing process. She is instantly blamed which results in a lack of support, as well as company to start high school. In addition, Melinda views herself as a broken girl who cannot figure out her own life. One night, she is forced to go shopping for new clothes with her mother. In the change room, Melinda carefully studies herself in the mirror. Her self- belief is too low,

Melinda, the main character of speak was raped at a summer party. She calls the cops and that is where it all started. When Melinda reaches high school she is faced with all her old friends. They all hate her and want nothing to do with her, because of her calling the cops. Throughout the whole book Melinda runs into tough situations that eventually lead to her standing up for herself. Eventually, everyone finds out the truth, of why Melinda calls the cops. Although Melinda learns to stand up for herself, throughout the book she shows signs of depression such as poor performance in school, sadness and hopelessness, and withdrawal of friends and activities.

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

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.

Laurie Halse Anderosn has written a book which is considered as a trauma novel “speak”. Usually anger is a phase that begins with madness and ends with regret, but in this book anger will be tackled in different way, Melinda’s anger starts with silence and ends with speaking. In other words it’s starts with fear and ends with triumph over self. Over the course of the novel silence struggling with anger is leading to speak. Anderson incorporated all themes in anger direction with different techniques such as flashback, allusion, symbolism, and fragmentation.

Everyone has hardships that they come across, but what really matters is the way they overcome them. In the book “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character Melinda Sordino does not try to face her hardships, she wants her problems to just disappear, but what makes her different is that she learns that saying nothing will just make her problems worse. The author characterized Melinda as very brave, although it took time for her to accept her problems. Melinda tries to admit what happened to her, deal with the bullies in her school, and tries to help her ex-best friend, Rachel to see with whom she is dealing with.

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

In the novel Speak, the author uses the protagonist, Melinda, to teach the reader the importance of verbal expression. Melinda refuses to speak up about an event that occurred in her life; therefore her classmates cannot show empathy towards her. Melinda never spoke up about why she did what she had done during an event in her life, so people judge and bully Melinda for her decisions. Melinda’s silence slowly erodes her self esteem and leaves her alone to handle her depressive behavior and decisions.

Speak tells the story of Melinda Sordino and the events that effect the way she is viewed by the students at Merryweather High School. Melinda experienced a disturbing and dreadful incident while becoming an upcoming freshman or aka “fresh meat”. That summer was the worst summer ever for Melinda and the school year was not any better at all for her. People judged her in many ways than they should’ve without knowing what actually happened. They judged her to the point she had absolutely no friends and was not able to ask anybody for help.

Towards the end of the year, there is a clear change in Melinda and she is confident of herself. When Andy tries to attack her again she says “NNNOOO!!!"(188) This shows how much she has grown because she decides not to be a silent victim anymore. Now she is a “definitely breathing”(197) tree. She came up struggling and feeling alone by herself, but she knew that she made a lot of progress from the start.

In speak the books shows the melinda should talk to someone and get help. Reading this books helps me have empathy on others who have bad things done to them. At the end of the first part of the book melinda's problems are causing her to get bullied and made fun of by many high school students, like the freshmen

Not being confident in yourself can cause emotional damage that isn’t easy to reverse, and Melinda belongs to many insecurities. It isn’t easy for her to see what she has become since the incident. In subchapter, “Winter Break”, on page 70, Melinda shares her feelings to the readers, saying, “I was a huge disappointment. I’m not pretty ot smart or athletic. I’m just like them -- an ordinary drone dressed in secrets and lies.”,

Melinda from the short story "Speak" had external conflict and internal conflict. The external conflict was Melinda against Melinda. After the party she tried to hide her thoughts about what happened that night. She did not want to accept that she was rapped. You know she was trying to hide her thoughts because she was hiding her thoughts from the reader.

Friendship is not simply a "relationship", knowing someone, conversing with that person, or dealing with that person in business, school, or in casual acquaintance. True friendship is not just a "relationship", but self-sacrificing love. A friend is also one who supports, sympathizes, and is a person in whom you can confide. There are unique qualities that a person must have to be considered a friend.