Rape In Laurie Anderson's Novel Speak

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

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.

And there is a clique of girls at the school who refer to their group as "the Marathas," that is the Martha Stewart wannabes. There doesn't seem to be a place where Melinda fits in. Where does a girl who has been sexually assaulted fit-in?

Having to go through sexual assault and then a year of bullying made Melinda speak up. Melinda went down a rough road in her life. Through all this Melinda grew strength and wisdom. At the school Melinda warned the girls about what Andy is capable of doing. She told Rachelle to watch out and to be careful around him. In Melinda’s later years she began writing her about story to help her express her feelings. She began warning others what sexual assault can do people and the harms of bullying. Even tho Melinda’s experience harmed her in many ways it gave her a story to help

She is landing at terms with the last item for her. She understands that she needs to analyze what happened. Obviously, Melinda's fundamental inspiration for at last uncovering the conundrum is clear, and it says a remarkable course of action concerning her character. When she sees that Rachel, the pal who sold out her, is in threat of changing into Andy's next misfortune, she is obliged to talk. This display to us that Melinda is solid to their previous history, and that she contemplates the security of others. Considering, all things have an importance at some point or another it covers the epic or the repulsive thusly making it more basic than it is. In the event that you nonchalance to know, is to comprehend that you don't know anything. That is the true blue significance of information, so making everything the furthermore Intriguing and troublesome in her condition. The tree is the motivation driving why she developed her heading and talked up about her circumstance. Disregarding the way that nobody like Melinda she kept her soul solid And battled through her inconveniences of helper school. In this way, Melinda contacted her objective of swinging out to everybody about the bona, fide truly was, and what happened and ensuring everybody knew. Make a point to exhort individuals with respect to the truth of what occurred than enable bits of converse with make and escalate the

Her consequence was to go to MISS (Merryweather in School Suspension). “Andy Beast” is in MISS with Melinda. “I am BunnyRabbit again, hiding in the open. I sit like I have an egg in my mouth. One move, one word, and the egg will shatter and blow up the world” (Anderson 117). Which makes her feel uncomfortable and will not speak. Not talking in MISS creates a situation where Melinda must take increased mental torture from Andy Evans. She sits by the man who sexually assaulted her.In addition, more and more into the school year she is beginning to speak, but she isn’t quite fully there yet. When Heather tells Melinda that she isn’t fun and is very boring and depressed, Melinda realizes that she isn’t at all fun. David, her lab partner, start to talk throughout the school year and Melinda starts to feel more and more comfortable with him. “I ask David Petrakis for advice. We come up with a Plan” (Anderson 155). Melinda asked David for advice because she needed to present a project in front of the class, which Melinda is terrified of doing. So they come up with a plan and it helps Melinda communicate with other which is a wonderful thing for her; but the terrible part this presentation got her sent to

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

Melinda got tired of living the pain. “Jeans that fit, that’s a good start. I have to stay away from the closet. I will make myself normal. Forget the rest of it,” (chapter 59, page 125). Melinda is tired of feeling stressed. She is growing as a person. She doesn’t want to be stuck in that situation anymore. She is now taking control because having flashbacks and trying to forget is not helping.

Self) She sees herself as an outcast. the internal conflict of Melinda Sordino I that she was raped and does not tell anyone about it, causing her to become depressed. Her parents realize that she acts differently at home, but Melinda does not tell the reason why. In the story, Melinda fears a guy named "IT", who we later on know as Andy Evans. And teases her in the story for example on page 97 he hands Melinda a donut saying, "What a bite?". He is obviously teasing her and Melinda makes it noticeable that she fears him by running away. The authors purpose is to show that Andy is the reason for Melinda's depression. She expresses this by having Melinda call Andy

At the vastly anticipated end-of-the-year party, Melinda calls the police after being raped. Rachel and Mel were just going into highschool, so when Melinda calls the police, Rachel did not want to ruin her new high school reputation. She leaves Mel at the party to walk home without even asking what had previously happened to cause her into calling the authorities. With all the other kids, she thought she did it just to get everyone in trouble. Weeks passed, and Melinda finds out Rachel is dating “IT,” Andy Evans.

A very real, and very common, problem in America is rape—more so the lack of knowledge about rape. This causes many problems for victims of sexual assault. In Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, the story of Melinda directly reflects the world today because most kids are not properly educated about rape and many teens in Melinda’s position can’t find a voice to tell their story.

Melinda debates whether to tell Rachel that her current boyfriend was an assaulter. “I could talk to Rachel. (Yeah, right.) I could say I'd heard bad things about Andy. (It would only make him more attractive.) I could maybe tell her what happened. (As if she'd listen. What if she told Andy? What would he do?) (…) I need to do something about Rachel, something for her. Maya tells me without saying anything. I stall. Rachel will hate me. (She already hates me.) She won't listen. (I have to try.) I groan and rip out a piece of notebook paper. I write her a note, a left-handed note, so she won't know it's from me.” (151-152). Melinda finally confronts Rachel and tells her what exactly happened to her, but Rachel did not believe Melinda as she really liked Andy. Rachel apologizes to Melinda when she realizes when Andy attacks Melinda again because he got to know what she told Rachel. Melinda was brave even though she was unexpectedly attacked by Andy for the second time. This time, she fought back before Andy could do anything that was seriously harmful to her and she threatened to stab him with a piece of sharp broken glass. This shows us how Melinda developed from a scared girl to a person who threatened to kill her

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

During this time in the novel, Melinda feels like she can’t speak for herself and can’t tell people what really happened and why she had called the cops at the party. She feels that if she tells anyone that they would say that she’s just trying to get attention. Those examples were just a few times out of the many that they changed the

Melinda was completely alone in her situation because nobody knew what happened to her at the party. She refused to speak to anyone and did not let anyone