Speak Laurie Halse Anderson Analysis

Metaphors in ‘Speak’ show that Melinda’s past peers unintentionally destroy her self-respect, resulting in a feeling of dread engulfing Melinda, her. Thus, Some individuals tend to jump to conclusions without thinking about others .On her first day of high school, the entire ninth grade population holds a grudge against Melinda for calling the cops at a summer party without knowing it was because she was raped. During her lunchtime, Melinda “stand[s] in the centre aisle of the auditorium” as if she is “a wounded zebra in a National Geographic special, looking for someone, anyone, to sit next to.” (Anderson 5). Melinda, standing surrounded with hundreds of people, yet still alone, shows that she has no support from anyone. Melinda is hurt so strongly by others rude attitude towards her to the point she feels as if she has been physically wounded, even hunted, by the students from her school. Melinda is seen as if she betrayed her peers by calling the police, lowering her certainty along with her self-esteem, which interrupts her mental ageing process. She is instantly blamed which results in a lack of support, as well as company to start high school. In addition, Melinda views herself as a broken girl who cannot figure out her own life. One night, she is forced to go shopping for new clothes with her mother. In the change room, Melinda carefully studies herself in the mirror. Her self- belief is too low,

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.

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

In the story “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, David Petrakis is the voice melinda does not have. He has the ability to do what she cannot. In one part of the story David stands up to Mr. Neck after he constantly abuses his students and rants about his son not getting a job. This leads to a full scale lawsuit where David claims his right to the first amendment was violated. Melinda felt that David was indirectly standing up for her when he yells at Mr.Neck because he had the ability to say what she never could. Melinda calls david a “hero” and thinks “He says a million things without saying a word. I make a note to study Petrakis. I have never heard a more eloquent silence” (Anderson 57). Melinda looks at David as if he has saved her.

When students are bullied, they are encouraged to speak up about it to a teacher or some other adult; however, many do not, because they may think their cases are not important enough to be told, because no one will believe their stories, or because they are embarrassed by what happened. As these cases turn from simple bullying to a more severe event, this inability to speak up only increases. Laurie Halse Anderson shows this effect with being raped, as well as the emotional damage that goes with it. Through Melinda’s experiences in Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson’s writing reflects the time in which it was written, her views on teens and the adolescent years, and her early life.

The story started in an ambiguous atmosphere ,as readers don’t know what happened to Melinda she refused to speak she only wants to live in her isolation. some people in their depression tries to speak, and others chooses to keep themselves silent and get stressed when they are given a heavy workload, like “why me ?” ,as they are too weak or shame to face the world around them ,and this exactly what happened to Melinda in this novel .People experiencing passive anger may not even realize they are angry, because passive angry maybe repressed, it can be hard to recognize. In this long term, these suppressed angry feelings can easily be a main reasson for psychological suffering. As readers can only notice that she carried a folded story that will be displayed through flashback

Speaking out is a tough task for many people that have dealt with horrible, traumatic situations. In the novel Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character, Melinda, is one of those people who lost their voice. To be able to understand another person’s emotions, feelings, and situations is very difficult to do, especially because of how our society has formed and became a very judgmental place. Melinda Sordino starts her freshman year at Merryweather High School in Syracuse, New York, to a terrible start; she is a victim of a sexual assault and loses her confidents and voice to speak out. The more she interacts and makes new friends is how she starts to reach out and become more self-sufficient. Few weeks into school Melinda’s only

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

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.

Banning or challenging books is an occurrence that has been taking place for years in America’s school systems, but often parents and teachers are not in agreement concerning censorship. The National Council of Teachers of English position statement is “We can safely make two statements about censorship: first, any work is potentially open to attack by someone, somewhere, sometime, for some reason; second, censorship is often arbitrary and irrational.” One such challenged book is Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, which was “banned from an eighth-grade classroom in Arizona due to profanity, sexual content, and rape theme” (Lesesne and Chance 48). Even though it presents difficult topics, Speak could be a benefit to students in a

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 Sordino is a typical teenage girl with a not so typical life. Melinda is the main character in the novel “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson. This novel is about a young girl who calls the cops at the summer party thrown before her freshman year. At this party she was raped by Andy Evans, the dreamy boy who is wanted by every girl in school. As school finally begins, Melinda is left friendless and alone. She goes through extreme problems, such as: bullying, self harm, skipping school, failing grades, thoughts of her rape, and the loss of her best friend, Rachel. While she is going through all of theses issues she is assigned an art project that lasts all year. Melinda’s task was to take the word ‘tree’ and sculpt it into something of magic. At first, Melinda is annoyed by the project,

Although she did have one friend, Heather, who came over to her house a few times. Her mother’s first reaction to seeing Heather at the house expressed that she realized that Melinda and her best friend Rachel weren’t friends anymore, but didn’t proceed to convey why. Instead of asking what had happened between the two of them, she just implied that “it was about time she saw a friend of Melinda’s come over” (indirect quote in Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, 15.5). Consequently, this lack of interest to know what had happened between the two friends showed obvious uninvolvement and unimportance creating an emotional

I do agree that one should use all four principles in life because it provides an equal balance, however I do not agree that utility is the most important principle. The world is not always black and white, I believe that there are gray areas in life. Every situation is different, just because a person does a bad thing does not mean that they should be punished and condemned to hell or prison. I do not feel that your argument is rationally persuasive because a lot of other factors matter when someone has done something wrong. If a person committed a murder due to a untreated mental illness because his family couldn't afford healthcare, or let's even say his mom just wouldn't seek treatment for him. Now at 20 he's committed this hainous crime because of his illness. Do we just throw him in prison or do we seek the medical treatment he should of had a long time ago? Do we treat him the same as a person who knows right from wrong when we obviously know that he can't possibly know that what he has done is wrong?