Summary Of Melinda Sordinie's 'Outcast'

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is a coming of age themed fictional Novel based around Melinda Sordino, a freshman at Merryweather High School. During her days at school Melinda found trouble fitting in and speaking because of an incident that happened at a summer party. That incident being that she was raped by a senior named Andy Evans, aka, “IT.” At the time, Melinda panicked and ended up calling the police, which resulted in everyone despising her. Similarly to “high school drama,” the author illustrated gossip and the effects it can have on a person. To compare, when the news hit Melinda, she became silent and isolated staying away from any old friends she glanced upon. Fortunately, Melinda found new hope when a stranger asked, “I’m Heather

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.

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.

One of MElinda’s ex-friends starts dating the guy who raped her. She sent anonymous letters trying to make her stay away from him. That proves she has grown, and she doesn’t want others to suffer because of him like she did. “I dig my fingers into the dirt and squeeze. A small clean part of me waits to warm and burst through the surface. Some quiet Melinda girl I haven’t seen in months. That is the seed I will care for,” (chapter 86, page 188-189). Melinda is facing her fears. She went to the place where it all happened. She wanted to have peace. She was ready to move on from the situation. The bottle was now open, and her feelings were flying

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

The novel Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, features a fourteen year old girl named Melinda Sordino who lives in Syracuse, New York. The novel takes place close to present day, with the book being written in 1999, which is when the novel was written. Melinda comes from a middle class background and her parents are blue collar workers. Her mother works at a department store at the local mall while her father works in an office building. Both of her parents spend a lot of time at work and Melinda is an only child, which means she spends most of her time alone. The story begins with Melinda entering high school in her freshman year. The summer after eighth grade, Melinda and her friends attended a high school party. At the party, Melinda is assaulted

Melinda Sordino is a fourteen year old high school freshman from Syracuse, New York .Mel is the narrator and protagonist of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Who tells her story in first person perspective, where she explains the struggles she had starting school after being sexually assaulted over summer vacation. Causing depression, which lead to Mel losing a close friend. After reading the novel, I concluded that Melinda is shy, isolated and misunderstood. . As the plot progressed Mel started to trust her teachers, she also started expressing herself.

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

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.

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

Melinda Sordino is the main character of the novel, speak. She is only fourteen years old, but she is dealing with one of the worst things that could happen: rape. With that Melinda enters ninth grade friendless and depressed. At the beginning of the story, Melinda is isolated. Throughout the story, she befriends some characters and learns how to speak. In speak due to the perspective, we don't get enough depth in a character. However, when hearing about Andy Evans, Melinda's rapist, from the beginning to the end of the story he was always arrogant and intimidating. Although Melinda does not defend herself against it, she often stays quiet.

In her mind, Melinda tells the girl that there's more to the story than she knows. But, Melinda can't tell everybody the real story, in fact, she can't even look at that part of herself. Heather seems that she should defend Melinda, but she doesn't do it as It might keep her from gaining popularity. Things get noisy, Melinda's head is in her hands and she screams, but nobody can hear her. On the contrary, there is one man that treats her correctly and that man is Mr. Freeman.

Over the course of her grade 9 year, Melinda needs the support of friends and peers, to help her resolve her conflicts and grow past the trauma inflicted upon her just before the year began. Melinda is haunted by the presence of her rapist, Andy Evans, and whenever he is around, she feels frightened and angry. The smallest of advances from him, even his mere presence, frighten Melinda into silence. She is alone in the moments he is near and the unmitigated fear she has, which she compares to being “a deer frozen in the headlights of a tractor trailer” is a constant reminder if the trauma he caused her. However, as the year continues, and Melinda gains the support and friendship, she is relieved of the fear and loneliness. Having said support

One of the rising actions occurs when Melissa decided to enter the contest with her own invention. Pitch and Savanna helped Melissa with the invention. Conflict occured when Melissa's invention was stolen. Initially, they thought Griffin had stolen it. Then, they thought it was Darren or the mysterious new neighbor, Mr. Hartman. The next rising action occurred when they broke into Mr. Hartman's house to see if he had taken the

Melinda’s reaction to the first day of school is awful, because it starts off with her going onto the bus and having others glare at her. Everyone hated her, no one not even her old friends bothered to talk to her. She was all alone. She complains about the school, her friends, and her teachers. She says “ am Outcast”, meaning that she has not been accepted by her classmates, she is being rejected. She says that because non of her friends bother to even say Hi to her, they all hate her. Her fear was that she didn't have friends on her first day, and how people word react to her.