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
In speak the books shows the melinda should talk to someone and get help. Reading this books helps me have empathy on others who have bad things done to them. At the end of the first part of the book melinda's problems are causing her to get bullied and made fun of by many high school students, like the freshmen
In the book Speak Laurie Halse Anderson is saying that in our daily lives friends are great to have, but you can’t depend on them always being there for you. Such as when Laurie Halse Anderson wrote about Melinda and her new friend Heather. Heather was fun at first but then backed stabbed Melinda later. Laurie Anderson wrote about Melinda’s friends leaving her after Melinda called the cops at the party because she was raped. Her friends didn’t bother asking why she did, they just stopped talking to her. Laurie Halse Anderson wrote about Melinda hiding and not opening up to anyone. Now this was where I was saying that Laurie Anderson was writing about it’s good to have a friends around. If Melinda had just one friend to talk to she wouldn’t
When she starts school that fall, no one talks to her about what happened and Melinda ends up staying quiet. She tries to act like the event never happened and this has a very bad impact on her relationships at school. On her first day, it can clearly be seen that she is a social outcast. No one talks to her as they blame her for being the reason the party got busted. This further pushes Melinda into silence, eventually leading her into depression.
Have you ever drawn a picture to express something, or just drawn it for fun? Well Melinda uses her drawings to express her feelings and get away from the world. I think the in the story “SPEAK,” by Laurie Halse Anderson, She uses Melinda's artwork and the tree to express the fact that Melinda got raped and afterwards, when she looked up... and saw... a tree.
The protagonist in the novel, Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson is high schooler Melinda Sordino. In the summer before her freshman year, Melinda is abused by an older student. This traumatizing experience turns her friends away from her and drives her into depression. Melinda enters high school at Merryweather High and struggles to find friends, perform well in classes, and even speak. She becomes the school’s freak. Melinda becomes an extremely powerful character as she muddles through depression for nearly a year before finding a way to cope with her mental illness.
The novel Speak by Laurie Hales Anderson shows Melinda Sordino struggling through the year, and her recovery from the painful memory of getting raped at the party in summer break. In the beginning of the story, the story shows how bad Melinda feels and then she changes and starts growing and at the final stage of the story Melinda becomes a strong hard oaktree-like person. In the book Speak, the author symbolizes the tree to show Melinda’s change from being an outcast to being an accepted person; this also supports the theme: time can help heal one’s painful memories.In the beginning of the year, her trees looked like trees that existed nowhere on earth, but by the end of the year, her trees were breathing and looked as if they had shot up
Melinda's a troubled high schooler who has had difficulties fitting into her freshman class. She is also having trouble finding her identity due to some unfortunate events during the summer. In Laurie Halse Anderson's novel, speak, Melinda the main character is assigned an art project. She is asked to study drawing and research trees throughout the year. Melinda takes this project very seriously, her artwork is the only ways she communicates her emotions to the outside world.
Symbolism in Speak Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, tells the story of Melinda Sordino and the personal challenges she faces after a traumatic incident during the summer before her freshman year of high school. Melinda's mouth, the janitor's closet, and trees are all symbols used throughout the text that exemplify Melinda's current state of mind. In a detailed essay, explain how one of these symbols portrays Melinda's growth. Include details and examples to support your explanation. *Include at least two quotes: Melinda is a young girl who is at a summer party and calls the cops.
A great leader acquires many strong qualities but the most important quality a leader can possess is being able to inspire other. In the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character, Melinda, is having some trouble with her art project. A girl named Ivy decided to take action and help Melinda out with her project. “You’re better than you think you are,” Ivy says. She opens to an empty page in the sketchbook. “I don’t know why you keep using a linoleum block. If I were you, I’d just let it out, draw. Here---try a tree. We sit there trading pencils,” (Anderson 146). Ivy wants to show that there are other ways to go about things. She understood that Melinda was stuck and wanted to inspire her by starting her off with drawing and helping along the way.
Courage When someone goes through something really tough it can be really hard to be courageous again, but if they want to feel stronger, little acts of courage go a long way. The book Speak is by Laurie Halse Anderson and focuses on a girl that went through something horrible. She had to be courageous and finally stood up for herself. Everyone in the school hated her and gave her looks, but she didn’t give up, even though it got very hard. Courage is needed for different reasons and different people, sometimes it can be talking to someone, going somewhere, or standing up for yourself.
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
My PSA is on consent and sexual assault and it is a topic that I believe more people should be informed about. I feel truly connected to this topic because I believe I can make an impact on someone’s life with my PSA. While researching for this PSA I have realized that people need to be informed about the definition of consent. Our entire grade read “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, we all know Melinda’s story and we all read her struggle to finally tell people about what Andy Evans did to her. I included and quote that Melinda had said when she finally told her story, it reflected the feeling of relief when one finally tells their story.
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
The book Speak by Laurie Anderson is a book about how Melinda Sordino overcomes the troubles in her life, and how she learned to speak up for herself. The author uses a lot of archetypes and allusions throughout the book to add a fuller description to the events Melinda had gone through, which will help the readers to better understand what Anderson is trying to tell.
The title, Speak, is the key to Melinda changing her life back to normal. I believe the thesis of this novel is that if you’re sexually assaulted, speak up. Many people believe that if you hold the dreadful memory inside of you, soon it’ll just lighten away, but that’s in no way the case. We see that in depth at Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak. The title is the tip off.