In “Speak” by Laurie Anderson, Melinda a teenage girl who is struggling to find friends in high school because of an incident at a party. It all started the summer going into freshman year when Andy Evans raped Melinda at a party, resulting in Melinda calling the cops. Since then only a few things are keeping Melinda going her freshman year like art and her few friends. Everyone thinks of Melina as the girl who called the cops now and nobody wanted to be her friend. Until she met a new girl Heather but, that friendship didn't last long. The closet incident with Andy played the most important role in changing Melinda’s identity. Melinda’s identity changed from being depressed and isolated to being happy and having friends once people found out what Andy did to her. This matters because now Melinda doesn't have to keep the secret about why she called the cops on the party because now people will believe her. This shows that people should not be afraid to tell the truth when they know it's the right thing to do no matter what.
At the start of the novel Melinda is starting her freshman year depressed, isolated and lonely. During the summer Melinda goes to a party with her friend Rachel and things don't end to well, Andy Evans a senior rapes Melinda while she was drunk. Melinda than calls the cops because of how frightened she is from the situation. People dislike Melinda because of what she did. For example,the first day of school Melinda doesn't know what to do since she has
Again, throughout the whole book, Melinda has this odd feeling, she thinks that nobody likes her and is always down on herself. An example from the book that shows this behavior is at the beginning of the book, her first day of high school. "I have entered high school with the wrong hair, the wrong clothes, the wrong attitude. And I don't have anyone to sit with. I am outcast." (Anderson 4) As soon as she enters high school she doubts herself. It's almost as that she believes that since she has entered with the wrong clothes, the wrong hair, and nobody to sit with, that she will never fit in. This shows a sign of hopelessness, she is doubting herself to much. Another example of when Melinda shows sadness and hopelessness is when she hears about Rachelles Halloween party she is throwing. She says, "I knew I wouldn't get an invitation. I would be lucky to get an invitation to my own funeral." (Anderson 41) This shows Melinda again, being
Melinda debates whether to tell Rachel that her current boyfriend was an assaulter. “I could talk to Rachel. (Yeah, right.) I could say I'd heard bad things about Andy. (It would only make him more attractive.) I could maybe tell her what happened. (As if she'd listen. What if she told Andy? What would he do?) (…) I need to do something about Rachel, something for her. Maya tells me without saying anything. I stall. Rachel will hate me. (She already hates me.) She won't listen. (I have to try.) I groan and rip out a piece of notebook paper. I write her a note, a left-handed note, so she won't know it's from me.” (151-152). Melinda finally confronts Rachel and tells her what exactly happened to her, but Rachel did not believe Melinda as she really liked Andy. Rachel apologizes to Melinda when she realizes when Andy attacks Melinda again because he got to know what she told Rachel. Melinda was brave even though she was unexpectedly attacked by Andy for the second time. This time, she fought back before Andy could do anything that was seriously harmful to her and she threatened to stab him with a piece of sharp broken glass. This shows us how Melinda developed from a scared girl to a person who threatened to kill her
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.
Within “SPEAK,” Laurie Halse Anderson uses Melinda’s artwork to express Melinda. At the Beginning of the story Melinda gets a year long art project to draw a tree. At the beginning, she struggles because she is still feeling pain and depression from getting raped. But, Throughout the story, she slowly grows and comes out of her “shell,” and becomes better and better with it; So by the
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
Every single person has a secret or an experience that they prefer not to talk about. In this case, Melinda Sordino suffers with the traumatic memory of rape. Within the novel, Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, Sordino’s entire life changes as Andy Evans takes advantage of her innocence by raping her during a party in August. As a result, Sordino’s trauma causes the alteration of her personality and perspective of the world. Sordino ventures throughout the story to rediscover herself as a person and faces several obstacles such as family troubles, disrespectful peers, and the person who has inflicted her with the most mental agony she can possibly withstand.
In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda Sordino starts her freshman year of high school with a secret. At an end of summer party Melinda and her friends went to she ended up calling the cops, so now her old friends won’t talk to her, and people she doesn't know hate her from a distance. Melinda’s only friend is a new student, Heather who ends up trying to gain
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.
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
Melinda Sordino, the narrator in the novel Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, walks the reader through her freshman year of high school. As the novel starts, the reader knows that everyone is mad at her for an unknown reason, but the reader soon learns that she had called the police during a summer party that she and her friends had gone to. Of course, as there were many high schoolers at the party, peers and her former friends ignored her throughout the beginning of the school year, yet she had a pseudo-friendship named Heather who focuses on gaining popularity- something Melinda has the least interest in.
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
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
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.
Conflict in Speak In the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, a young 8th grader goes to a party at the end of summer going into her freshman year. She ends up getting raped by a boy who was going into his senior year. Melinda calls the cops and has to hide what happened and who did it because of how people would react. Many people were furious at her, and she became an outcast. Throughout the book Speak, Melinda experienced a lot of character vs. self conflicts because of what she endured.
Melinda warns her ex best friend, Rachel, about Andy when they start dating by writing a note. But it doesn’t help. Finally she takes all of her courage to talk to Rachel what actually happened at the party. Rachel says Melinda is a liar and walks away. However, she breaks up with Andy after that. Therefore, Andy searches for Melinda and tries to rape her again for telling Rachel the truth. Melinda screams “NNNOOO” and tries her best to fight against Andy. She doesn’t decide to be silent anymore, now she is brave enough to stand up for herself. Fortunately, lacrosse team hears the noise and comes to rescue Melinda. After that, all the students know what Andy did to Melinda and feel sorry for her. The novel ends up with Melinda choses to tell