Essay

As she grows she discovers more of what she is capable of. Now she realizes that even though she is going crazy, she is still alive. Above all, she does not want to hide anymore and is not afraid to come out of her shell of guilt. “I don’t want to hang out in my hidey-hole anymore…. I don’t feel like hiding anymore” (p.191-192). She comments about not wanting to go back to her closet because she is not afraid of what might happen to her. In the same way she says that she, in no matter what condition, is still alive and breathing. “I have survived… Confused, screwed up but still here” (p.188). She is happy that she survived and that it does not matter if she is frustrated, she still has to stay for the ones who love her. In order which she has to take care of the old Melinda she was and let go of the Melinda she was after the party. After this realization she understood that she is not perfect but she can grow to love those

It does not let her feels and looks so stupid. After Heather joins in the Marthas, she blows Melinda off and Melinda is outcast again. The students hit Melinda in the hall; the girls' bully her at the pep rally all shows Melinda is an outcast, she is unwelcome. Melinda is a coward. "The kids behind me laugh so loud I know they're laughing at me. I can't help myself '' (Anderson 4). Melinda is a timid person. She scareds to tell the truth of that night, thus her friends cannot understand her difficulties. About the event happen at the party, she chooses to escape her past and become silent. Melinda does not talk a lot, either at school or at home to her parents. She acts like she does not care and hid from everyone. When someone bullies her, she just ignores them and suppresses her true feelings. Melinda is also a negative person. '' It is easier not to say anything. Shut your trap, button your lip, can it. All that crap you hear on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie'' (Anderson 9). From this quotation, it is evident to see Melinda is negative. Her thinking is negative and

She describes her lips using very ugly words. These descriptions of Melinda's lips and mouth in the novel clarify Melinda’s inability to speak after the rape. Throughout the chapters of the story Melinda’s lips are described as cracked, pale, swollen and dry. Unlike any girl who consider her lips as a sign of beauty. The ugliness of her mouth represents the ugliness and shame she feels inside her mind as well as her inability to take care of herself. Later, as Melinda begins to heal and learns to speak about the rape, the state of her lips will

Melinda started off in the story afraid, lonely, and out of place. “I have entered high school with the wrong hair, the wrong clothes, the wrong attitude. And I don’t have anyone to

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

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,

In “Speak” by Laurie Anderson, Melinda a teenage girl who is struggling to find friends in high school because of an incident at a party. It all started the summer going into freshman year when Andy Evans raped Melinda at a party, resulting in Melinda calling the cops. Since then only a few things are keeping Melinda going her freshman year like art and her few friends. Everyone thinks of Melina as the girl who called the cops now and nobody wanted to be her friend. Until she met a new girl Heather but, that friendship didn't last long. The closet incident with Andy played the most important role in changing Melinda’s identity. Melinda’s identity changed from being depressed and isolated to being happy and having friends once people found out what Andy did to her. This matters because now Melinda doesn't have to keep the secret about why she called the cops on the party because now people will believe her. This shows that people should not be afraid to tell the truth when they know it's the right thing to do no matter what.

Firstly, how have you ever complained to someone about unfair treatment? Words give people the potential to combat the opposition, and when Melinda was silenced, she was unable to take a stand, and let herself be abused. The first time Melinda lets herself be bullied by her tranquility, is in the cafeteria with a teacher. She was pounded by mash potatoes, and when she tried to run out to clean her shirt, she was stopped by her teacher. As written on page 9, “It is easier not to say anything. Shut your trap, button your lip, can it. [...] Nobody really wants to hear what you have to say.” This quote shows how Melinda chooses not to retaliate, since she is afraid of Mr. Neck, the teacher on lunch duty. She wears her dirty shirt the rest of the

Throughout this fragment of Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson portrays Melinda with an introvertive voice. Melinda is having a hard time warming up to her new high school. The excerpt starts off with Melinda trying to find a place to sit in the lunchroom. “There’s that new girl, Heather, reading by the window. I could sit across from her. Or I could crawl behind a trash can.” (Paragraph 2) Melinda would rarther hide and go unnoticed than interact with other students. This quote shows us that she’s willing to take great measures to avoid being observed. Another example of diction was when Melinda was seen without a hallway pass by Mr. Neck, and when she was asked to explain herself, she just thinks to herself: “It is easier to not say anything… Nobody

No one became friends with Melinda even though she had Heather by her side Melinda was still lonely, that’s what many don’t realize you could have 1-10 friends but no one truly knows someone mentally, they could portray a happy person when they can be living the worst at home. Melinda went through bullying alone and suffered a lot because no one was there to see something wrong so she went with her school life day after day lonely and eventually she lost Heather as a friend due to heather wanting acceptance from the

As Mr. Freeman says his reaction to her artwork, Melinda stays quiet and in shock because she expected more of a positive comment then a serious negative input. When Freeman says his last words about the artwork, “this has meaning. Pain”(65) Melinda leaves before he can comment on anything else. She acts in this manner because Melinda 's art project shows how she is trapped inside herself. While Freeman is giving his input Melinda sees how all the objects she just used to make a picture actually are painful pieces in her life that shows that she is in a place of need. Melinda is calling for help through art without realizing it. Acknowledging, Freemans negativity Melinda still

Melinda does not have a good relationship with her parents. She thinks that her parents are only together to save their daughters feelings. Little do they know, she can see right through their act, especially when they start to bicker over simple things. One day her

But now I am desperate to be her pal, her buddy, to giggle with her, to gossip with her. I want her to paint my toenails (Anderson 105).” In order to end her time as an outcast, Heather ends her friendship with Melinda. Melinda’s realization comes in when she wants her even more as a friend in the dying moments of their friendship. She wanted to feel cared for, before she was lonely once again. Personally, this hurt my heart to see a friendship end in order to gain something of lesser

Melinda remains silent as a result of her parent’s inability to recognize her pain. For instance, during the meeting with the Merriweather High guidance counselor, Melinda mentally asks her parents, “Would you listen? Would you believe me? Fat chance” (114). Melinda questions how her parents would react if she told them about the party, about Andy, and about the rape. Melinda thinks her parents would not believe her since they are oblivious to her life and are unable to see that something has had a major effect on her. Her mother, a hard working business woman who struggles to balance her family life and career, is not able to give Melinda the time of day when she shows signs of depression and anxiety. In particular, after seeing the cuts on Melinda’s wrist, Mrs. Sordino says, “‘I don’t have time for this Melinda’” (88). Melinda’s mother ignores her whimper for help and tells her to toughen up instead of helping her. She believes that Melinda’s bad grades, ditch

This is related to Melinda because she puts herself in a cage, and watches people be happy and succeed, while she is there just watching and not being able to do anything. She tries to be like them, but all she can do is pretend. She rarely gets oppurtunities like this.