How To Fight In Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak

Melinda Sordino has been influenced by peer pressure.Moreover, she has been peer pressured and doing terrible things. She experienced it quite a few times because when she was at the party she was drinking and when Melinda got to the new school called Merryweather high she ditched earned bad grades and didn't do her work in most classes. Consequently Melinda couldn't handle it that well because she didn't talk about it .She should have handled it differently by telling the people no

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.

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 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 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

Depression is a whole body illness that affects a person's physical health as well as how he or she feels, thinks, and behaves towards others. In addition, a person who suffers from this disorder may have problems eating, sleeping, working, and getting along with his/her friends. In the book, Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda Sordino goes to highschool with no friends and a bad attitude. She has thoughts of suicide and wants to escape her reality. She does so by going into her closet which she refers to as her “second home”. She feels safe in the closet and finds it as soothing. She finds her courage and her voice in the closet. Melinda’s progress truly shows when she is in her “foster home” and she eventually goes on finds her voice. During the book in the closet she finds her courage, she can sleep and find peace when she is in it, and she goes to it when she needs comfort.

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.

In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda a young incoming freashman starts off high school depressed and avoided by her classmates and friends. Over the summer Melinda attends a party where she has no choice but to call the police, resulting in all her friends to dismiss and turn against her completely including her best friend Rachel. When Melinda begins high school detached from all of her classmates she tries to befriend Heather, a new student who is unaware of the party conflict. “...we kind of paired up at the beginging of the year when I was new and didnt know anyone and that was really sweet of you but I think its time for the both of us to admit that we...just...are...very...differnt” (105 Anderson) Heather soon realizes

Speak is a novel by Laurie Halse Anderson. Speak is about how Melinda changes and grows as the school year goes by. In the Novel Speak, the author uses the “Tree” motif to show her emotions and to express herself.. In the beginning of the novel, the motif “Tree” represents why Melinda is acting the way she acts.

Melinda and her friends decorated their rooms to show who they were, Melinda stole a little bit from everyone else. The only part that is really her is a stuffed rabbit collection from when she was younger. You can see that Melinda doesn't know who she is. "My stuffed rabbits crawl out of their burrows,noses awiggling, pink bunny, purple bunny, a gingham bunny from my grandma, all excited to have company"(177). She obviously doesn't usually get company because her stuffed rabbits are excited to see Heather,even after she dumped Melinda. Melinda is lonely and this just adds to her feelings of helplessness.

William F. Halsey explains, "All problems become smaller if you don't dodge them but confront them." This shows that facing a difficulty face to face will help it go away. In Speak, mute Melinda was unable to overcome her struggle since she attempted to “dodge” the truth. However, when Melinda finally spoke out about what happened to her, she immediately felt better about the struggle she was dealing with. The main theme of the novel and ancillary texts is overcoming obstacles. This theme is expressed through the conflict, symbolism, and foreshadowing throughout the texts. Laurie Halse Anderson’s use of literary elements in Speak, as well as the devices in the article, “The Art of Resilience” and the poem “If” help the common theme of overcoming obstacles throughout a time of growth and change evolve throughout the story.

In the book, Melinda is influenced because her friends and her attend a party and she gets drunk to try and be cool (Halse).I have had a friend who experienced peer pressure and my friend was peer pressured to drink alcohol and to smoke weed.My friend and Melinda have something in common because they both drank alcohol because they wanted to be cool(Halse).Melinda handled the pressure by not doing what people did and not hanging out with bad people(Halse).