Laurie Halse Anderson

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

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is a coming of age themed fictional Novel based around Melinda Sordino, a freshman at Merryweather High School. During her days at school Melinda found trouble fitting in and speaking because of an incident that happened at a summer party. That incident being that she was raped by a senior named Andy Evans, aka, “IT.” At the time, Melinda panicked and ended up calling the police, which resulted in everyone despising her. Similarly to “high school drama,” the author illustrated gossip and the effects it can have on a person. To compare, when the news hit Melinda, she became silent and isolated staying away from any old friends she glanced upon. Fortunately, Melinda found new hope when a stranger asked, “I’m Heather

The contemporary classic novel Speak, profounds a girl, Melinda Sordino, entering freshman year at Merryweather High School in Syracuse, New York, with a heavy secret weighing on her. Unlike regular students, Melinda isolates herself from the society after a devastating event that she had experienced. Through her perspective, we enter her world of depression as she struggles her way through the school year. From her eyes we see the way she sees life, hear the ways others described her and enter her mind on how she thinks of the world. On a journey of gaining back herself, bad things turn worse, as that one person enters her life again. ‘It’, who made her fall into misery, ‘It’ who destroyed her once happy life. Melinda fights not only with herself, but It, the school, the world. The only thing that she feels comfortable in doing is art, where she drew trees to Anderson will definitely make you laugh throughout her book, however along holds undeniable sadness as we watch Melinda heals her way through her trauma that doesn’t seem to leave her.

Laurie Halse Anderson creates a deep and meaningful book with the use of unique structure of the “chapters” and an important theme. Speak is a very relatable and realistic book. Many people around us have secrets that they are too scared to share. Melinda is a teenager that develops in character immensely. She goes from hiding a secret of herself to speaking the truth and finally revealing her secret. Rape is a serious situation and many people have experienced, but we do not even know it as the victims are possibly too afraid to speak up. Readers can relate to this book even if they aren’t the one with the secret. They could be the friend who did not know, or just a high school student who witnessed it all happen. Speak presents an important

Melinda Sordino is a fourteen year old high school freshman from Syracuse, New York .Mel is the narrator and protagonist of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Who tells her story in first person perspective, where she explains the struggles she had starting school after being sexually assaulted over summer vacation. Causing depression, which lead to Mel losing a close friend. After reading the novel, I concluded that Melinda is shy, isolated and misunderstood. . As the plot progressed Mel started to trust her teachers, she also started expressing herself.

There are many valuable aspects in life that may mean a lot to a person. In this case, friendship is one of the most important relationships a person can have. Human interaction is something necessary to survive, having a friend is essential to the well being of everyone. However, not all relationships with people can be considered a friendship because some may take advantage of others to gain something for themselves. Whereas, other friendships may last years and remain strong between the two people, but if there is no trust then there is a possibility of losing a friend. On the other hand, positive friendships still exist and are the ones to cherish and appreciate the most. The novel Speak written by Laurie Halse Anderson is based on a fourteen year-old girl named Melinda, who was sexually assaulted at a summer party. She called the police for help but since none of her friends knew what occurred, they assumed she called to get them all in trouble. This made her an outcast and she spent her ninth-grade year by herself. The theme of friendship is evident in the novel Speak as it impacts the protagonist Melinda. This is seen through Melinda 's friendship with Rachel, Mr. Freeman, and Heather.

Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a story written in the first person about a young girl named Melinda Sordino. The title of the book, Speak, is ironically based on the fact that Melinda chooses not to speak. The book is written in the form of a monologue in the mind of Melinda, a teenage introvert. This story depicts the story of a very miserable freshman year of high school. Although there are several people in her high school, Melinda secludes herself from them all. There are several people in her school that used to be her friend in middle school, but not anymore. Not after what she did over the summer. What she did was call the cops on an end of summer party on of her friends was throwing. Although

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.

In the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the author does something out of place or that the character wouldn’t do and it brings the book to a whole other level. The main character is Melinda and she has a hard time in highschool. She doesn’t have any friends and most of her teachers don’t like her. Also her and her parents don’t really talk to each other. They don’t have a connection with her like some parents have with their kids. So just from this you can kind of tell that Melinda of has no hope inside of her.

Speak, a novel by Laurie Halse Anderson, is about named Melinda caught up in the high school chaos trying to find a way to tell everyone what happened to her over the summer. Heather, a new kid from Ohio who becomes friends with Melinda leaves her to be part of a group known as “The Marthas”. Heather is bubbly, determined, and egocentric.

Everyone grows physically. A person can be 4’ll”, and a couple years later they are 5’3”, Physical change is not a big deal. When someone grows as a person or emotionally it can go both ways, You either emotionally grow in a negative or positive way. The person can either become a better person, or grow with more flaws and bad habits. Speak was written by Laurie Halse Anderson, published on October 22, 1999. The story shows the character development of the main character, Melinda Sordino. Although teenagers go through emotional growth because their maturity levels are increasing, Melinda goes through a rough situation that helps her grow as a person.

In Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak, the protagonist, a freshman named Melinda must learn the key to recovery after enduring extreme trauma. She struggled to find someone to speak to, due to the school shunning her for calling the police at the party. Throughout Speak, Melinda seeks to recover from the trauma she experienced, especially the cruel actions from her ex-friends. Through symbolism, Laurie Halse Anderson displays the theme in Melinda's perspective.

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.

Starting her Freshman year of High School, Melinda found herself in a very dark, low, depressing, time in her life. She had lost all the ambitions she had for her High School career. She had lost her voice and passion for everything. Until Andy Evans made her find her voice after he sexually assaulted her. After all that Andy had put Melinda through made her find herself and her voice to come back from a traumatizing experience.

In the novel Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson, there are many definitions to the word forge. For one, Curzon forges his way into the army. Additionally, the hardships Curzon experiences during war forge him into a much stronger person. Finally, Curzon develops into a more mature and strong person by expressing his emotions for Isabel. Forge is a multi-layered word with many different meanings and applications. Throughout the book, Anderson gives many different examples.