Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson Essay

The big idea that I get from this book is that some burdens are just to big and the only was to handle them is together. The problem is that so many people are ashamed and would rather hide it that handle the situation. If all girls, or boys, who were put in situations like Melinda would speak up maybe there would be more justice in our

Something had happened during that summer party that made her want to end her silence and speak up. During the summer, Melinda got raped by a senior boy called Andy Evans. Whom she

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.

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

She describes her lips using very ugly words. These descriptions of Melinda's lips and mouth in the novel clarify Melinda’s inability to speak after the rape. Throughout the chapters of the story Melinda’s lips are described as cracked, pale, swollen and dry. Unlike any girl who consider her lips as a sign of beauty. The ugliness of her mouth represents the ugliness and shame she feels inside her mind as well as her inability to take care of herself. Later, as Melinda begins to heal and learns to speak about the rape, the state of her lips will

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

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

In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda a young incoming freashman starts off high school depressed and avoided by her classmates and friends. Over the summer Melinda attends a party where she has no choice but to call the police, resulting in all her friends to dismiss and turn against her completely including her best friend Rachel. When Melinda begins high school detached from all of her classmates she tries to befriend Heather, a new student who is unaware of the party conflict. “...we kind of paired up at the beginging of the year when I was new and didnt know anyone and that was really sweet of you but I think its time for the both of us to admit that we...just...are...very...differnt” (105 Anderson) Heather soon realizes

She proceeded to call the cops, ending the party and becoming an outcast at her school, Merryweather High, because she did not speak up about the rape. This causes many challenges for Melinda, but after multiple transformations throughout the year she overcomes it. Laurie Halse Anderson uses trees across the novel to represent these transformations by portraying Melinda's growth physically and emotionally. At the

The book, Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson is a fictional story about the struggles a high schooler is faced with everyday. In this book, many different things are portrayed including: fear, rejection, tension, anxiety, etc. Although Merryweather High School is fictional and not what people presume of high school, it is very similar and has many of the same aspects such as the role of the teachers, the way people would clique together and leave others out, and how Melinda became known as a “loser.”

Upon entering high school, most people are faced with the challenge of re-discovering themselves. Whether it be choosing which friends to hang out with, or which classes and teachers they prefer, everyone is forced to re-evaluate many things. In the book, Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda is a high school freshman who busted an end of the year party after she was raped by Andy Evans. She does not tell anyone what happened, so when she returns to school, her friends shun her because she busted the party. To make matters worse, she must create a tree in Mr. Freeman’s art class that expresses her emotion. Throughout the book, Melinda struggles to create an emotional tree and discover herself. Anderson uses tree symbolism to show Melinda’s internal well being and emotional growth throughout her first year of high school.

Andy found her closet and he went to visit her on one of the last days of school. “No. a sound explodes from me. NNNOOO!!!”(194). Andy tried once more to rape her. Melinda wouldn’t let him overwhelm her. Melinda said no, as she started to speak again to more people she said no to the one person she hated most. If melinda had not made noise and broken the glass he might have done it again. She finally got the courage to fight and stand up to Andy. Melinda may have let him rape her again but talking to Rachel increased melindas courage to stand up to Andy and others in the

Melinda finds a place to like them because Heather, also, needed Melinda to help her with projects because she got behind on them. Melinda didn’t tell anyone her secret but on page 183 she gains enough confidence to tell her ex-best friend, Rachel, trying to warn her about Andy. In Melinda’s world that would’ve never happened if she hadn’t changed so much. She tried to warn Rachel about Andy, but she refused to listen. Melinda at the end of the year (page 195)