One Hundred Years From Now: Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

“Speak” is book about a young girl who loses her voice after being raped and slowly gains it back over time. Laurie Halse Anderson uses an internal voice throughout the book to show the havoc that is attacking Melinda’s mind. This adds to the theme of being outcast and isolated because the she has no one to really talk to.

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

Her first non-children’s book was Fever 1793, although she took a yearlong break from that book to write Speak (Lew 23-25), her first true young adult novel. As she began writing for teens instead of children, she also began writing about more controversial issues, such as the rape and depression in Speak. Anderson has become “knownfor writing realistic books about controversial subjects for teens” (Deutsch). Not only does she write about these difficult topics, she approaches them with “humor and sensitivity” and “her work has earned numerous national and state awards, as well as international recognition” (“Laurie”). Speak itself was a National Book Award finalist and is a Pritz honor book the year it first came out (Lew 34). Despite this recognition, Wesley Scroggins, a Missouri State University professor, called the book “soft pornography,” and demanded that it be taken out of school curriculum (qtd. in Lew 35). Judy Blume, Anderson’s favorite author, backed Anderson in this situation, calling the claim “outrageous” (Lew 35). Clearly, Blume and Anderson won the battle because “[Speak has] been used in schools in order to not only teach literary analysis but also to teach and give students tools against sexual harassment” (“Voice”). The response to Speak can be better understood by learning about the time it was written.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson tells the story of Melinda Sordino, a ninth grader that attends Merryweather Highschool in Syracuse, NewYork. The author has a unique way of writing Melinda's story. She uses subtitles instead of chapters, nd goes into detail of Melinda's everyday life, by using Melinda's perspective. The author sets a depressed mood in the story because of what the main character has gone through. The central idea of the text is communication which in the beginning Melinda lacks. August before her freshman year, Melinda and her friends show up at a senior party. At the party, Melinda ends up drinking. Andy Evans takes advantage of her drunken state and rapes her. She is too drunk to defend herself. Afterward Melinda deals 911 and the police arrive at the party, but Melinda is unable to confess what happened. When the entire school knows that Melinda was the one who called the police, everyone, including her friends, stopped speaking to her. No one knew the real reason behind the 9-11 call. Throughout the school year she cuts her wrist, skips school, and fails her classes. Melinda goes through a tough time in high school. She has one friend (who later on in the book betrays her), a difficult family, and was a victim

Students in Merryweather High school struggle to understand that being in their cliques won’t do them any good because all it will do is separate those who have been best friends since the end of time causing social anxiety for others. “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson wrote an explicit book of what is the true meaning on how you could change your ways when you speak up instead of staying quiet. So, How does being silent affect the individual themselves? This induces the Students to have trust issues, being mentally corrupted, and to never be true to themselves. Because of these it doesn’t allow something like for example the First Amendment Freedom of speech, this makes me ask what has our world come to?

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.

A great leader acquires many strong qualities but the most important quality a leader can possess is being able to inspire other. In the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character, Melinda, is having some trouble with her art project. A girl named Ivy decided to take action and help Melinda out with her project. “You’re better than you think you are,” Ivy says. She opens to an empty page in the sketchbook. “I don’t know why you keep using a linoleum block. If I were you, I’d just let it out, draw. Here---try a tree. We sit there trading pencils,” (Anderson 146). Ivy wants to show that there are other ways to go about things. She understood that Melinda was stuck and wanted to inspire her by starting her off with drawing and helping along the way.

Laurie Halse Anderson shows the reader COURAGE is a theme in ‘Speak’ because on page 9 MELINDA got smacked in the chest with potatoes and tries to storm out when she is stopped by a teacher (MR.NECK) who won't let her out because she is too afraid to tell him what she was doing. She needed COURAGE. Another theme is FEAR, MELINDA has/had a fear of speaking, about anything, about what happened. This is shown on page 97 and 9 when instead of talking and confronting Melinda just runs away; in both situations. On page 97 Melinda runs away from Andy when he offers her a bite of a jelly doughnut (tauntingly and creepily not as a friend).

Everyone has someone in their lives who can help make them strong and help them to speak out. In the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson the main character, Melinda Sordino, lost her voice and does not speak due to a traumatic experience. She went to a high school party at the end of the summer and met this boy named Andy. They danced a little, talked and kissed. Andy took Melinda out to the woods and raped her. She called the cops because she was so scared. When the cops showed up, they arrested people. Everyone knew Melinda called the police which makes everyone hate her. So she starts high school and has no friends and does not talk to anyone including her parents. But throughout the book there were three people who help Melinda find her voice.

Speak By: Laurie Halse Anderson Characters: Melinda Sordino: Melinda is the protagonist of Speak. She is the narrator of the story and is in the ninth grade. She begins the ninth grade friendless and depressed. She once had a lot of friends but they ditched her after she called the cops at a party because she was raped.

In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character, Melinda Sordino experiences a disturbing event over the summer of her eighth grade year. She was sexually assaulted by Andy Evans at a party. Melinda nearly loses her mind totally as she began shutting down on all fronts. However, she slowly recovered from her traumatizing experience, and eventually learned how to live with what happened.

Symbolism is a commonly used literary device that uses symbols to represent other ideas which is seen very often in Speak, a novel by Laurie Halse Anderson. The chapters Little Writing On the Wall and Chat Room specifically have a lot of symbolism. These chapters are mainly focused on Ivy and Melinda in the girls bathroom and the writing on the bathroom walls. Also, they show Melinda finally starting to speak up about what’s happened to her. In Little Writing On the Wall Ivy accidentally gets marker all over Melinda’s shirt and they go to the bathroom to try and fix it, within that time Melinda sees the writing on the walls, anonymous conversations scrawled across the room.

Speak was written by Laurie Halse Anderson and published in 1999. It is written from the point of view of Melinda, a high school freshmen whose world got turned upside down after a traumatic summer event. The story follows Melinda through 9th grade as she deals with depression, PTSD, and social exclusion and learns about standing up for herself. The theme of Speak is to stand up for yourself. This is clear because if Melinda had stood up for herself the first time, she wouldn’t have been raped and Andy Evans wouldn’t have continued to target her.

Peer pressure can influence teenagers because they can do the activities the other people because they want to be popular and make their friends happy. What I think Laurie Halse Anderson,the author of ‘’Speak,’’ is saying that a teenager will will do anything to be cool and have friends.

“The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said” (Drucker). The theme that Drucker is trying to give out is communication just like in Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel Speak. Throughout the entire novel, this theme is shown mostly in the characters of Mr.Freeman and David Petrakis.