preview

Exploring The Theme Of Courage In Laurie Halle Anderson's Book Speak

Decent Essays

We all have opportunities to display courage in our life, but if we actually do is our decision. Courage is being able to do what is right even if it can be hard. In the book Speak by Laurie Halle Anderson I found three different examples of courage. In this book Melinda Sordino, David Petrakis and Melinda, again all show courage. The first example of courage is when Melinda is told that she needs to read her suffragette report in front of the class. The easy option would've been to just read her paper in front of the class but instead she took a different approach, an approach she considered the right option. Instead of reading her report she writes on the board, "The suffragettes fought for the right to speak. They were attacked, arrested, and thrown in jail for daring to do what they …show more content…

Neck. David doesn't change what he believe because Mr. Neck gets mad at him, he stays strong and fights for what her believes. Mr. Neck is debating that American citizens should have priority on jobs over immigrants. When a student in the class challenges Mr. Neck directly and many other students in the class agree with him, Mr. Neck gets very angry and decides to end the debate. But then, David stands up and says, "' If the class is debating, then each student has the right to say what's in his mind.'" (56). Mr. Neck then gets even more angry and tells David to sit down or go to the principle. But instead of doing the easy option, sitting down, "David stares at Mr. Neck, looks at the flag for a minute, then picks up his books and walks out of the room." (57). Melinda says, "He said a million things without saying a word." David shows great courage because if he would've just stopped talking he wouldn't have been doing what he thought was right. By leaving the classroom he made a sting statement that he has a right to believe what he wants and his teacher shouldn't dictate his personal

Get Access