Stranger with My face by Lois Duncan explains the puzzling yet frightening experience of finding out who you truly are. Laurie Stratton is a typical seventeen year old girl who lives in New England with her mother, father, sister, and brother. The story begins with Laurie’s friends claiming they see her wandering around during the night, Laurie swears it isn’t her and begins to wonder what is going on. After several accusations of seeing Laurie wandering around at night she begins to investigate. Laurie then finds out that she is in-fact adopted, and nonetheless she has an identical twin, Lia, that she had no idea about. Laurie then learns that Lia has been using astral projection to communicate with the people around Laurie. Unaware of the …show more content…
Throughout the book Gordon would constantly cheat on Laurie. He would not only cheat on her but he would also make it seem like it was her fault which is completely unfair because it’s one thing to cheat but to make the other person feel bad about it is ridiculous. Another reason why Laurie breaking up with Gordon was my favourite part is because of how judgemental he was of Laurie. Gordon would always undermine Laurie, he would tell her that her outfit choices were bad, he would constantly remind her of her mistakes, and Gordon would make fun of Laurie’s family which is not the way a relationship works because in a relationship you should be supportive and not criticize everything the other person does. Lastly Laurie breaking up with Gordon was a good idea because dating Gordon changed Laurie. Laurie became more insecure and more agitated towards not only her friends but also her family. Gordon was a bad influence on Laurie and changed her for the worse which isn’t a good quality in people. Laurie breaking up with Gordon was a good decision because he didn’t treat her fairly or …show more content…
A big part of mystery is investigating and putting together pieces of a puzzle to figure something out which is exactly what Laurie did. Laurie went through her parents files and documents to find out if she was really adopted like Helen, Laurie’s best friend, has assumed and when she couldn’t find anything there she continued to investigate until she found out she was in fact adopted. Secondly, this book is a mystery book because it has a lot of unanswered questions and sometimes mysteries are unanswered or even impossible to answer. Even after Laurie was saved no one knew of Lia’s whereabouts or if she would ever come back, all they knew was that Laurie wasn’t making up things about Lia, another unanswered question is what truly caused Laurie’s biological mothers death. Another big part of the mystery definition is an unsolved problem. In this book there is one huge unsolved problem which is why this book is a mystery. The unsolved problem in this book is Helen’s parents never allowing Helen to see one of her best friends, Jeff, because her parents think he caused her accident when in fact it was actually Lia but Helen’s parents never find out it was Lia. Although mystery has a vast definition I believe that this book qualifies to be a mystery for the following reasons I listed
Many believe that it was the parents and the teachers fault for not doing what they were supposed to do. For example, Laurie’s parents could have taught him better to behave and to know how to follow the rules. In the beginning of the book, it says, “He came home the same way, the front door slamming open, his cap on the floor, and the voice suddenly become raucous shouting, “Isn’t anybody here?” It is being shown that even at home Laurie is being very disrespectful which can be because he hasn't been taught very well. Parent should start teaching at an early age. It seems that Laurie wasn't taught or just didn’t learn. While other people believe that it could have also been the teacher's fault. Some people think that the teacher should have called on the first day that Laurie or Charles had misbehaved. His actions were being repeated over and over throughout the book. Everyday when Laurie got home he would talk about Charles. Charles had misbehaved for quite a while. Normally at school, the teachers call home if you misbehave several times. The teacher could have done that too. Although if you do misbehave there will always be consequences for the person that caused like like in the real world; if you do a crime, you can get sent to jail or go to a judge,
In the the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the character Heather, Melinda’s ex-friend and member of the Martha clan, has many interesting character traits. Her most prominent traits are, that she is very petty, she is talkative, and that she is very driven. Heather is very petty. When Melinda is at Heathers house, in her room, Heather starts to cry because she is not popular, “Here people don't know I exist.
I agree with you when you say that Andy couldn't accept the fact that his son could possibly be a murderer. Andy put all facts aside and stuck with his gut feeling that Jacob was innocent. I personally thought that Jacob was innocent in the beginning because he was a very quiet and shy kid, but as the book went on i started to see that all the facts pointed straight to Jacob. Like you said Laurie believed that Jacob did commit the crime while Andy didn't. What made Laurie believe that Jacob was the murderer is after she found the results of the murder gene test, which Andy, Andy’s father, and Jacob tested positive, “So you're saying he might have done it. You think it's actually possible.” (Landay 295). The ending completely shocked me as well
I thought Gordon was quite masculine in a sense. He was dominating in his and Virginia’s relationship. Didn’t ask her if she wanted to get married, rather said that they would get married. He was controlling and a stickler for time.
The author Shirley Jackson that wrote “Charles” uses characterization to both foreshadow and trick the readers about the ending. In the beginning of the passage, the boy Laurie is thought of as a “sweet-[voice] nursery-school tot” by his mother(258). Since Laurie is such a sweet pleasant boy, the reading audience believes he could not be Charles. Jackson trickers readers into believing that a delightful child Laurie could not be a unpleasant boy that Charles is. Laurie molding into a new personality throughout indicates foreshadowing. When Laurie returns home from school, he misbehaves, “[speaking] insolently to his father, [spilling] his baby sister’s milk”(259). Laurie does not act as described, making the reader question if he is a kind
Laurie, a young boy who was having trouble adjusting to recent changes in his life, took on the role of a non-existent boy called Charles to handle these arising adjustments. " Charles" was written by a woman named Shirley Jackson. Laurie may have posed as Charles since he was struggling to become familiar with having an infant sibling, as well as beginning kindergarten. He was a kindergartener who was stressed, due to new changes. The story takes place at Laurie's home and school during the 1950s.
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.
Appearance has a massive amount of importance in today's society, and that brings on a magnificent amount of insecurity in today's youth. What people see and how they react to their reflection in a mirror will vary. How someone views oneself is a very important subject to that person's state of mind, this can lead to a person being confident or being very insecure. In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the mirrors display Melinda's frustrations towards herself, such as a negative appearance. On page 37 you can almost feel her negative reaction from her reflection. “Seeing her reflection in the window, she was struck dumb her face is streaked with tears. (36)”
This causes a strain on Keith and Nora relationship since they need to come to terms with reality. Keith has a job substituting but Nora is unemployed and this causes Keith to resent her for not pulling any weight in their relationship. Keith finds a house-sitting gig for his friends grandparents mansion
When the wave starts out Laurie likes the concept of it and everybody else does too. But when everybody else started to grow more inclined to it she liked it less. Laurie started to come to multiple realizations about the wave after a supper conversation with her parents. When Laurie told her parent about it her father was supportive of it but her mother was not very fond of it. Her mother disliked how everyone was stripped of individuality. All the students in the wave aside from Laurie barely spoke for themselves as their own person. Just for the wave. Laurie didn't like how the experiment robbed people of their own opinions, how everyone is listening to Mr. Ross and obeying to him and how the people inside the wave treat outsiders.
The book The Stranger thematically coveys that society is the real sociopath that uses manipulation to always prove it’s right in the face of the individual’s different truth. People will always side with society over the individual due to society “never” being wrong. Throughout Meursault’s trial he sits there in the hot courtroom listening to the prosecutor talk about everything but his crime. He’s on trial for murder and it is expected of the prosecutor to paint Meursault as this horrible monster and Meursault knows that but he still isn’t able to take it.
The upbringing of a child is no small task. Parents have the responsibility to form a loving relationship with their child and raise the child to be a functional adult. Unfortunately, many times parents do not see the need to have these close relationships with their offspring. A perfect example of the negative effects that this neglect can have on the child can be found in the book “Speak”. Even though Melinda's parents showed her attention at times, Melinda's detached family life caused her to develop more slowly in a social aspect, made it difficult for her to form relationships, and has slowed her recovery from sexual assault.
Laurie is very determined to end the wave because it is hurting people. Laurie doesn’t want people getting hurt therefore she tries to stop it. “Don’t you see” Laurie said, mistaking his hesitation for a glimmer of doubt you’re so idealistic David you’re so intent on creating some kind of utopian society full of football teams. You don’t see it at all. They have a right not to join. Laurie tells her boyfriend no one has to join the wave movement at all because the Wave is out of control. Laurie’s boyfriend is getting out of control about the wave. He thinks extending it to the football team is a fantastic idea which it’s not, which leads to their break up. Laurie is determined to say anything she wants about the Wave in the Gordon Grapevine. “I will write and I will say anything I want to, and you can’t stop me. Laurie is determined to write anything she wants and her friends can’t stop her from doing that. After Laurie edits the Gordon Grapevine, David and Brian try to Catch her and try to take away the paper away from her and they fail. All in all, Laurie doesn’t care whether she gets in trouble or not she wants to be the hero that ends the Wave.
Laurie does bad stuff and blames it on an imaginary boy named Charles.”The teacher spanked a boy for being fresh” (73). Today Charles hit the teacher’s friend. “Charles Yelled during story hour and hit a boy in the stomach” (75) .This shows that Laurie is manipulating his parents even when he is only a child. This is significant because his parents believe Laurie, and they aren’t doing anything about it. The parents believe “Charles” is a bad influence but it’s really just. When you first meet Laurie
At the age of six I was officially adopted by the Henry family. My name was changed, my history was left behind. Not only was my history left behind, however, so where my siblings. My parents were not able to adopt us all, causing all of to have to split up. This is one of the most traumatic moments in my life. I still remember being pried from my little brother’s arms, one of the most traumatic events in my life. I would have to say I was going through Identity versus role confusion at this time. Being adopted, for a long time, meant to me that I did not belong. I did not know who my brothers and sisters were. I also didn’t know my mother and father, which caused an emotional hit on me. This caused me to feel like I didn’t have an identity. I was confused and was unsure of how to deal with the stress that was being thrown at me.