Melinda's Influence On The Night Of The Party

Something had happened during that summer party that made her want to end her silence and speak up. During the summer, Melinda got raped by a senior boy called Andy Evans. Whom she

She battles between herself on whether she decides to speak up or stay quiet about her getting raped. In the end, Melinda was able to overcome this conflict and tell Rachel about it. In addition, Melinda has an external conflict with Andy Evans as he terrifies Melinda whenever he sees her. The climax of this story is when Andy Evans becomes trapped in the janitor’s closet with Melinda. The janitor’s closet is Melinda’s hideaway from the world. It’s a place where she can do whatever she wants without the judgement of anyone. On the last day of school, when she was about to leave, Andy walks in and slams Melinda back in the closet, trapping her in. He begins talking about how her big mouth of telling Rachel made her break up with him at prom. He goes on and on and when Melinda tries to leave, he locks the door and begins to forcefully kiss Melinda. Melinda screams at the top of her lungs while Andy was kissing her even throwing things around, but no one came for help. Everything stopped when she took a piece of broken mirror and put it up against his neck. From that point on Melinda was then a changed person. Although she was terrified of what just occurred moments before, Melinda was happy that she was able to speak

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.

He would whisper things in her ear like “fresh meat” to scare her and intimidate her to the extreme. He would play with her hair while he was talking to the other girls at her table in the lunchroom. Every time Melinda would pass Andy in the hallways she would panic and walk somewhere else. Also Melinda tried to run away from her problems at school one day and skipped school to go to the mall. When she was on her way to the mall she was passing the bakery where she saw Andy by his car. It says she stopped in her tracks and she couldn’t even walk because of her fear. He then saw her and said “Want a bite” with a jelly donut in his hand. Melinda scared out of her mind ran. Andy was a bully as well as many others. Melinda had to find strength through all of this.

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

They first met at an end of the year party. At the time, she was entering ninth grade and this was her first high school party. He met up with Melinda after she had a few drinks not long after they encountered they left the party to have a little fun of there own. Melinda feels like she is worthless and not needed. She wasn't able tell him to stop, "’I thought it was a little rude, but my tongue was thick with beer and I couldn't figure out how to tell him to slow down’" (134). Andy raped Melinda and that was only the beginning. He makes her life miserable. All she thinks about is Andy and how he wouldn’t stop. Her influences her life in ways that are not positive. He has her shut out of the world because she doesn’t want to be noticed by anyone. Melinda

Throughout the book Melinda has problems with her family. like her mom calls her weird. And is mad about her grade that just makes it worse. And her father does not communicate with her mother .So that just starts more problems with the family .

One of the bigger turning points in her life happened when she is raped at a high school senior party. What made it traumatizing was that they are young girls and Melinda didn't realize

Melinda finds a place to like them because Heather, also, needed Melinda to help her with projects because she got behind on them. Melinda didn’t tell anyone her secret but on page 183 she gains enough confidence to tell her ex-best friend, Rachel, trying to warn her about Andy. In Melinda’s world that would’ve never happened if she hadn’t changed so much. She tried to warn Rachel about Andy, but she refused to listen. Melinda at the end of the year (page 195)

She overcomes her fears by standing up for herself as she begins to realize that she needs to tell someone about what happened, and if she doesn’t, other girls might get hurt. As Melinda’s former best friend Rachel starts dating Andy, her rapist, she feels worried and wants to protect her friend from the “monster”, preventing the same thing that happened to her happen to Rachel, even when she was still scared and miserable. Eventually, she has the courage to finally tell Rachel about the secret she has been keeping to herself for so long “I didn’t call the cops to break up the party, I write. I called-- I put the pencil down. I pick it up again--them because some guy raped me. Under the trees. I didn’t know what to do” (183). Melinda also demonstrates her courage when she finally fights back against Andy when he tries to rape her for the second time as she refuses to stay silent and not do anything about it.“No, a sound explodes from me. ‘NNNOOO!!!’ I follow the sound, pushing off the wall, pushing Andy Evans off-balance, stumbling into the broken sink” (194). Even with all the things that she goes through, she still has the courage to stand by what is right, she eventually halts her silence and she opens up to others at the

My hair is completely hidden under the comforter. Two muddy circle eyes under black dash eyebrows, piggy nose nostrils, and a chewed up horror of my mouth” (21). “As she rests, Melinda bites her lips and looks in the mirror, disgusted by what she sees. (26)” In these quotes you learn about how insecure Melinda is with her reflection. The reflection that she saw symbolizes Melinda's broken sense of self. Towards the end of the book Melinda is in a situation to either fight or flight. In the next quote you will know if she fought or flighted. As Andy pins her by the throat against the closet’s sink. Feeling his body crushing her, and groping desperately “for a branch, a limb, something to hang on to, (96)” Melinda finds a block of wood the base of her bird sculpture. She uses it to break the mirror behind the poster of Maya Angelou. Grabbing a shard of glass, she holds it to his neck, pushing until she draws a drop of blood. When Melinda uses the mirror to defend herself against the person that caused all of her pain, Andy Evans, when he tries to rape her again in the closet at the end of the book, Melinda's self loathing can finally rely on the correct person and not on herself. The shattering of the mirror, and the use of one of its broken shards to threaten Andy Evans

Things that shape a person’s identity is their friends,family,school,lifestyle and how they are raised. Two factors that shape Melinda’s identity are her friends and family. Melinda was shaped by how she was raised,her experiences at school and her friends and how she was treated at home. First,family shape Melinda's identity. For instance,at thanksgiving “Mom hangs up and chase me out with instructions to take a shower and clean my room” (Anderson 59).In my own words, this quote means Melinda mom doesn’t want her around.

Everyone has different experiences in life, and it’s these experiences that can shape their identities. In the novel “Speak”, the main character, Melinda, does not have the greatest life. She doesn’t have many friends, her parents have bad chemistry, and her school is overall a struggle to get through. The 2 largest factors that affect melinda’s identity are her friends and her friends and her art teacher, Mr. Freeman.