How Positive Change is Derived From Negative Experiences In the life of a teenager, negative experiences are sometimes inevitable. As adolescents transition into young adults, there i’s no doubt that they would sometimes feel down because of a few traumatizing experiences. These negative experiences could range from a whole variety of reasons. In fact, sometimes adolescents feels as if they have no control over the situation which is evident with the character Melinda in the book Speak. On the other hand, teens are sometimes subjected to very sudden harsh and traumatic changes in one’s life which they have to cope with and learn from which can be seen with Andy and Shane in the book Skud. Along with that, there were and still are other teenage …show more content…
This is evident in the novel Speak, since Melinda goes through a traumatizing school year with frequent bullying as well as a sexual assault. Not only is she able to pull through ultimately, she also accepts what happened and asserts that she is willing to learn from the experience. For instance, near the end of the book, Melinda asserts “IT happened. There is no avoiding IT, no forgetting. No running away, or flying, or burying or hiding. Andy Evans raped in August when I was drunk and too young to know what was happening. It wasn’t my fault. And I’m not going to let it kill me. I can grow” (Anderson 198). Again, this quote greatly implies that Melinda has developed a growth mindset which has allowed her to move on from this traumatizing experience and she is essentially stating that she will not contemplate on the horrific incident endlessly but she will instead try to learn and acquire some insights after going through the frequent bullying and the assault. Melinda’s experience is also extremely similar to Maddy’s experience of being sexually assaulted in the book The Pain Eater. Maddy also contemplated on the horrific incident a lot throughout the book, but ultimately, she acknowledged that contemplating on the incident over and over will not change anything and she decided that it was time to stop this mental illness and learn to move on. Melinda also states “let’s talk about it” (Anderson 198) towards her art teacher at the very end of the book when her art teacher inquired her about her school year. This passage reflects her growth mindset even more since this is strong evidence that Melinda is now willing to open up and talk about her troubles. Although Melinda suffered through a school year full of
At the beginning of the book, Melinda was at a high school party and was sexually assaulted by a senior student. This happened in late August, and Melinda is extremely scarred and traumatized by the incident. In the fall, Melinda is so broken that she cannot even speak – she does not tell anyone what happened
Just before school ended, she started communicating with her lab partner and friend, David Petrakis. She also met Ivy, a kind girl in her art class. As Melinda finally met people that she felt comfortable and happy around, she gained confidence. Her teachers and parents were pleased to discover that this also improved Melinda’s attendance and grades. Melinda finally opened her mind enough to think through the events of the party. She had blamed herself the whole time, just like the rest of the school. As Andy pointed out, Melinda never explicitly told him, “ no” during her rape. She thought it was wimpy that she called the cops. She let her friends and peers convince her that she was an idiot and a wimp. Melinda eventually allowed herself to figure out that she was a victim. She never gave permission to Andy, and she was right to call the police because she was in pain and in danger. Once Melinda opened up and let herself and others in, she was able to defend herself. Melinda proved her confidence and power when she told Andy, “No!” when he tried to attack her in her closet. With Melinda’s new found confidence, she was able to drastically improve her life and save herself from her
Melinda realizes that she has much more potential, places the past behind her, and begins to speak once more. Anderson's novel explores common teenage problems such as depression; Melinda exhibits external signs like cutting her wrist with a paperclip and biting her lip,
Numerous teenagers notice the beginning of high school to be a difficult as they encounter a new obstacle, when walking into a new atmosphere it is common to lose one’s confidence not knowing what lies ahead. Mixed emotions are dealt from a freshman, Melinda Sordino, as she struggles to develop due to no growth and lack of confidence Unable to face her experiences and seek for help from others, in the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. The text uses Similes to display how Melinda is feeling where she passively lacks confidence due to her trauma. The use of metaphors is to describe Melinda’s fear of facing the truth towards her suffering. Finally, the value of symbolism explains how she is dealing with her trauma by observing her trauma towards
Throughout the book, Melinda goes through many different phases. In the “First Marking Period,” she is on the verge of a psychological death, but in the “Second Marking Period,” she knows what she wants to do, but can not complete it. In the “Third Marking Period,” she begins taking risks, and in the “Fourth Marking Period,” she conquers her fears and creates a beautiful tree. Many people can relate to what Melinda has gone through in high school, in fact we all face the same challenges she did. Upon entering high school, all people are forced to reconsider their friends, and are tasked with the difficult challenge of discovering
In the end, the boy who assaulted Melinda is caught, and people start to involve Melinda again. She is no longer as isolated. The narrator states “It happened… And I’m not going to let it kill me. I can grow” (777).
When Melinda, the character from Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, gets raped her fear keeps her from letting people know. Melinda gets bullied and rejected and even cast aside by her supposedly “bestfriend” all because her fear won't let it out and nobody knows. They all think she is just a snitch that called the cops at a highschool party.
As seen throughout the novel, Melinda presented major symptoms of self-destruction to the audience as a result from the rape. First of all, there are many signs of this type of behavior, one that Melinda has shown on various occasions are acts of physical harm. The most serious example of this is was in “Rent Round” on page 87 when Melinda was in her closet after a rough day. “I open up a paperclip and scratch it across the inside of my left wrist…… I draw little windowcracks of blood, etching line after line until it stops hurting”. At this point in the novel, we know this quote proves an act of attempted suicide, which greatly relates with self-destructive behavior. This quote/event is great evidence of how the rape affected Melinda mentally.
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.
In the chapter “Pruning” she shows us this when she visits an old tree on a farm, the tree that she was raped under. “I crouch by the trunk, my fingers stroking the bark, seeking a Braille code, a clue, a message on how to come back to life after my long undersnow dormancy. I have survived. I am here. Confused, screwed up, but here” (pg. 188). Anderson uses the tree to suggest that Melinda is trying to find how to fix herself. Even though she still wants to repair the internal and physiological damage that she has, she understands that she is still alive and here in the world and she is incredibly thankful for that. She knows that she survived the road to recovery even if she isn’t fully recovered. Melinda knows that sometimes you can’t fully fix
From the beginning of the book Melinda had such little power, she never wanted to speak out against the person who wronged her, Andy. In the book she expressed how she felt at the moments he was near her, “Good thing my lips are stitched together or I’d throw up,”(Anderson, 46). Melinda even names him “IT,” because she wanted to de-humanize him as much as she can. Melinda was raped which is one of the most traumatic events possible and trauma affects identity. When your identity is affected you are forced into this mood where you don’t want to speak up because you might feel a little bit of self blame. Melinda
Laurie Halsie Anderson has created a book, surrounding the idea of growing strength, clearly stated by the bloom that Melinda has endured and her journey to reach inner peace. Can you imagine, being raped, getting drunk, losing all of your friends, and learning your parents have been possibly cheating on each other, all in one night, then being forced to relive that night every time you see your rapist, your ex-friend, or even a tree? This girl is 14! She clearly has an immense amount of strength to continue on. In addition, Melinda has to live knowing that her parents are forcing themselves to stay in a failing marriage to make her “happy” and sacrificing their own happiness for hers.
“After a traumatic experience, the human system of self preservation seems to go into permanent alert, as if the danger might return at any moment” (Judith Lewis Herman). The psychoanalyst Lewis Herman describes how encountering agonizing pain causes individuals to become more cautious as a result. The psychoanalytic lens is based on Freudian theories and asserts that “ people’s behavior is affected by their unconscious:...the notion that human beings are motivated, even driven, by desire, fears, needs, and conflicts of which they are unaware…” (Tyson 14-15) High schools a place where tragedy are brought upon people, but their voices aren’t heard. Melinda, a high school freshman, is the protagonist in Laurie Halse Anderson’s book, Speak.
A trait that stands out in the book is the symptom of bodily memories. In Melinda’s case, during a frog dissection in her science class, she remembers the opening up and even says, “She doesn’t say a word. She is already dead. A scream starts in my gut – I can feel the cut, smell the dirt, feel the leaves in my hair.” (81). One of the other symptoms that Melinda has is self-harm. The first time that this is shown in the book, Melinda says this, “I open up a paper clip and scratch it across the inside of my left wrist. Pitiful. If a suicide attempt is a cry for help, then what is this? A whimper, a peep?” (87). Melinda also has a hard time talking to her parents about the rape to which she says, “How can I talk to them about that night? How can I start?” (72). Some victims recover from such a traumatic experience, while others don’t and live a lifetime of depression and must undergo intense therapy. In Melinda’s case, she finds redemption by talking to her parents and the guidance counselor, and putting her faith into her teachers, friends, and her art project at school. Because rape can affect anybody anywhere, everyone should be aware of the circumstances, and how to deal with it.
Speaking is tough for some people who have had a rough past and do not want to deal with anyone. In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda goes from being caught in a snare to feeling freedom. At the start of the story, she is extremely afraid and anxious because of what happened at the senior party at the end of summer. Melinda is scared because she has no one to be with on her first day of high school. Everyone blames her for what happened at the party. Nobody knows that she was raped which makes everything more challenging. In the end, she is able to defend herself against the person who raped her, Andy Evans. At first, Melinda feels like an outsider because of the incident that happened at the party in August which caused