Theme Of Communication In Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak

Meet Melinda Sordino, a 14 year old girl and the narrator of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Melinda is a freshman at Merryweather High, where she mainly feels like an outcast. Due to a recent traumatic event, in which Melinda was raped by a highschool senior, she refuses to speak. The young teenager is however extremely loyal. When Melinda sees her ex-best friend in a relationship with her rapist, she is determined to warn her and protect her. She is also extremely strong. Even though Melinda was raped, she sees herself as a survivor more than a victim towards the end. “He hurt me. it wasn’t my fault. And I’m not going to let it kill me. I can grow.” Anderson 198

Throughout this fragment of Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson portrays Melinda with an introvertive voice. Melinda is having a hard time warming up to her new high school. The excerpt starts off with Melinda trying to find a place to sit in the lunchroom. “There’s that new girl, Heather, reading by the window. I could sit across from her. Or I could crawl behind a trash can.” (Paragraph 2) Melinda would rarther hide and go unnoticed than interact with other students. This quote shows us that she’s willing to take great measures to avoid being observed. Another example of diction was when Melinda was seen without a hallway pass by Mr. Neck, and when she was asked to explain herself, she just thinks to herself: “It is easier to not say anything… Nobody

Symbolism is a commonly used literary device that uses symbols to represent other ideas which is seen very often in Speak, a novel by Laurie Halse Anderson. The chapters Little Writing On the Wall and Chat Room specifically have a lot of symbolism. These chapters are mainly focused on Ivy and Melinda in the girls bathroom and the writing on the bathroom walls. Also, they show Melinda finally starting to speak up about what’s happened to her. In Little Writing On the Wall Ivy accidentally gets marker all over Melinda’s shirt and they go to the bathroom to try and fix it, within that time Melinda sees the writing on the walls, anonymous conversations scrawled across the room.

In the 1999 book, Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, the story of a young, high school student is told from the point of view of the main character, Melinda. Due to an act of violence against her during a summer party, Melinda is blamed for calling the cops; which ultimately, ended the party. Melinda is ostracized for the situation, and leads to her isolation from others. By using figurative language, character development and character resolution, Laurie Halse Anderson develops the theme of isolation and the effect it has on the character. First of all, the author uses figurative language to portray the theme of isolation.

In Speak, the author, Laurie Halse Anderson uses imagery to portray Christmas as a positive event for the main character, Melinda Sordino. Melinda has a distant relationship with her parents due to the fact that she often feels ignored by them. On Christmas Day, her parents “…give [her] a handful of gift certificates, a TV for [her] room, ice skates, and a sketch bag with charcoal pencils. They say they have noticed [her] drawing. [She] almost [tells] them right then and there. Tears flood [her] eyes. They noticed [she’s] been trying to draw. They noticed” (Anderson 72). This quote is significant because it reflects steps of improvement in their parent to child relationship. Since Melinda withdrawals herself from the attention of her parents,

Melinda’s conflict with herself continues as she tries to overcome the events of that night. In the realistic fiction novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the author uses symbolism and allusions to show how Melinda struggles to overcome the rape throughout the novel. Symbolism is widely used in Speak to suggest something more of an object. Colors are big symbols as they convey Melinda’s thoughts

In "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson, there are two adults: Mr. Neck and Mr. Freeman, who are Melinda Sordino's teachers.

Peer pressure can influence teenagers because they can do the activities the other people because they want to be popular and make their friends happy. What I think Laurie Halse Anderson,the author of ‘’Speak,’’ is saying that a teenager will will do anything to be cool and have friends.

Speak Essay “ A sure cure for seasickness is to sit under a tree” (Spike milligan). Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson is about a girl named Melinda that got raped at a party, ever since then she lost all her friends and struggled talking to people in high school. The tree in the book Speak is a motif in the story that symbolizes the growth of Melinda. First, she is assigned to draw a tree and thought it was too easy, Then, she tried stepping it up by adding color to the tree, finally, she built confidence in herself and agreed that she can do a better on drawing a tree.

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

Appearance has a massive amount of importance in today's society, and that brings on a magnificent amount of insecurity in today's youth. What people see and how they react to their reflection in a mirror will vary. How someone views oneself is a very important subject to that person's state of mind, this can lead to a person being confident or being very insecure. In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the mirrors display Melinda's frustrations towards herself, such as a negative appearance. On page 37 you can almost feel her negative reaction from her reflection. “Seeing her reflection in the window, she was struck dumb her face is streaked with tears. (36)”

Friends are a big part of your high school life as these are the people you will grow

Someone’s walking through the hallway all alone, later that same person is getting made fun of at lunch. It takes courage to stand up to somebody, and support others. The book Speak talks about a girl who feels all alone through school because of one night, it is a strongly written book by Laurie Halse Anderson, written in 1999. The benefits of being courageous will help oneself, friends, and others. The first example is when Melinda called the cops at the party.”

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

Sometimes, problems can just stare at the one who’s having them. Given all of the possible solutions, the problems will stare hard until it hurts, maybe even to the point where one could become a totally different person. In the novel Speak, author Laurie Halse Anderson gives a quick snap into this crucial reality by moving into main character Melinda’s perspective. Anderson uses an inanimate object as a way to represent problems that just won’t look away.