title In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda, an incoming freshman at Merryweather High School in Syracuse, New York, went to an upperclassman party during the summer and tragically was raped by Andy Evans, a senior jock. Melinda immediately called the cops after the assault, and all the people at the party since then on, have hated her for ruining the party, but they do not know why Melinda had really called the cops. Since this incident, Melinda has had difficulty expressing herself and talking about her ordeal. The story consists of the continuous motif of speaking/not speaking, to illustrate how in order for rape victims to get help they have to reach out and speak to someone. At the beginning of the year, Melinda continuously …show more content…
She begins to open herself up a little more, talking to more people, but not yet revealing her secret. When Melinda is at the mall people watching, she thinks to herself, “I should probably tell someone, just tell someone. Get it over with. Let it out, blurt it out,” (99). Melinda has approached the stage, in her PTSD recovery, where she has thoughts about confessing the truth. This thought shows Melinda’s growth from the start of the year, where she was completely bottled up and refusing to speak, to now. At the time where Melinda is in the car with her art teacher, Mr. Freeman, he says to her, “If you ever need to talk, you know where to find me. You’re a good kid. I think you have a lot to say. I’d like to hear it,” (123). By Mr. Freeman saying this, it opens a whole door of opportunity for Melinda to tell him. Melinda will now have what he said hanging over her head, which can make her feel more comfortable when spilling her secret. When Melinda has a flashback of what happened during the party she narrates that Andy Evans asks her, “Do you want to?,” and she doesn’t respond out loud, but thinks, “What did he say? I didn’t answer. I didn’t know. I didn’t speak,” (135). Melinda here is recalling, what had happened to her and the severity of it. By her having this flashback, it shows that her situation isn’t easy to just talk about, it will take some courage to reach out. When Melinda …show more content…
At one instance during art class, Melinda and her peer, Ivy are in the bathroom together and Melinda sees writing on the stalls, and decides to join in, “I hold the cap in my teeth. I start another subject thread on the wall: Guys to Stay Away From. The first entry is the beast himself: Andy Evans. “Ta-da!” I point to my handiwork. Ivy grins,” (175-176). Melinda has now confided in Ivy by showing her her dislike for Andy, by her writing on the wall. It is a step toward communication for Melinda, not yet fully opening up to Ivy, but still letting her in somewhat. At the final chapter of the book, Melinda finally speaks. When she is trapped with Andy Evans in the closet, and he starts kissing and getting touchy with her, her response is, “No. A sound explodes from me. “NNOOO!!!” (194). Melinda has now spoken out toward Andy, a and he loses his balance a bit. The lacrosse then comes in the door and sees what really happened. The girls that discover her are accepting, and understanding of what Melinda’s gone through, and now know the truth. To tie up Melinda’s secret coming out, there is a final scene where Mr. Freeman questions her and sees her crying, “No crying in my studio. It ruins the supplies. You’ve been through a lot haven’t you?” “Let me tell you about it,” (198). Melinda has come to terms with what has happened to her, and is ready to get the help she
Although she had been averse to the project given to her, she gradually began to like it. It was the only class she actually tried her best at, as an outlet to express herself, even if it was just the slightest bit. Over the next couple weeks, Melinda started to eat lunch with Heather and went on a couple trips to Heather’s home. The two formed an unhealthy friendship where Heather did about 90 percent of the talking, as she was much more social then Melinda. She wanted to be popular, however, which meant joining a one of the many cliques of high school.
When she eventually breaks the mirror, she uses it against the boy, “Shards of glass slip down the wall and into the sink... I reach in and wrap my fingers around a triangle of glass. I hold it to Andy Evans’s neck.” (Anderson 195). This scene illustrates how much Melinda has grown.
In the book “Speak” Laurie Halse Anderson writes about a young teen, Melinda Sordino, an outsider and a despised person who is entering high school. Melinda shutdown an end-of-summer party by calling the police, she was heavily intoxicated and she got raped. She has a troublesome time fitting in and finding her way through high school, while she is still hoping to make it out alive. Melinda’s ex-best friend Rachel and her other ex-friends will not talk or be friends with her anymore because after what she did. Melinda is concealing her secret about being raped from Rachel, her ex-friends, and her parents.
Melinda’s grades begin to drop and she starts to self harm by biting her lips until they bleed. When Heather notices that Melinda is depressed, she breaks her friendship with her instead of getting Melinda help. Her parents and guidance counselors notice her sudden decline, but think it’s just a ploy for attention. Months later, Melinda finally admits to herself that she was raped by Andy Evans. She starts going to class and reuniting with her friends.
She also told Heather “… That’s not what I mean, I mean no, won’t help you. ”(Anderson 179). This was one of the first times that she stood up for what she wanted. After her fight with Heather, Melinda had a confidence boost and felt strong and powerful. Towards the middle of the novel she was getting more positive feedback from her friend Ivy.
Also, the closet her “safe place” she always used to hide what happened at the party from everyone else becomes a dangerous place. “It”, also known as Andy Evans the boy who rapes her at the party breaks into the closet and tries to sexually assault her again. Melinda realizes she can't let this happen again and therefore fights back with everything she has. She realizes that her closet is not safe anymore and that she can't hide from her trauma. And that she can't hide from this problem, and she needs to stand up and speak to the problem.
The novel Speak was written by Laurie Halse Anderson, which features a girl named Melinda who is starting her first year in high school. Melinda is hated by her peers and seem to have a heavyweight surrounding her. As the story goes on the reader learns that Melinda’s depressive state is because of the traumatic experience of being raped. Throughout the novels entirety Melinda is shown attempting to take control over her life and to get through the school year in one piece. Speak gave many people the opportunity to put themselves in the place of a rape victim.
This causes her to be unable to speak as normal and express herself only through self physical acts of hurting herself. However, through her pain, she begins to grow from a victim to a survivor and understands that the only way to go against evil is to speak out against it. Melinda in Speak is a high school freshman who is raped by Andy Evans who is a senior in high school. Due to him raping her she loses her ability to speak normally and say what she feels and how she feels. Melinda gains her confidence to speak in public freely again by the end of the story.
Be careful what you wish for, events that turn Melinda's life for the worst, Speak Every 107 seconds an American is sexually assaulted. Melinda, the main character in the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, fell victim to this very stat. Typically girls in high school think about their next date, their next sporting event or their next trip to the shopping mall. In Melinda's case, events like when she was raped, when she called the police and when her friendship with Rachel was revived both positively and negatively impacted her life.
At the end of the story she finally found her voice and was able to stand up for herself. In the beginning, Melinda didn't talk to anyone, barely even to her parents. She says, “I have tried so hard to forget every second of that stupid party and here I am in the middle of a hostile crowd that hates me for what I had to do. I can't tell them what really happened” (Anderson, 28).
After Melinda admits to herself that she was raped, Melinda starts to realize that
The book Speak is a book written by Laurie Halse Anderson, it is about a young girl named Melinda Sordino and is about a very serious and all too common issue: rape and depression. Rape is a serious problem, it can completely destroy a person, making them never the same again. Depression is always an uphill battle and is even worse when your friends turn their back on you and your family does not notice something is seriously wrong with you. Melinda was a young girl enjoying life until an older boy named Andy Evans took advantage of his size and raped her.
Melinda, in a lot of ways, starts out like that it the book. She becomes a shell of herself from before the party happened and because no one else was there, she is lonely and doesn't have anybody to go to and to make matters even worse, she’s covered by the reputation that she has formed. In the book, Laurie Halse Anderson uses symbolism to convey exactly what Melinda can't say. In the beginning of the book, Melinda starts high school carrying her emotional wounds with her after something happens mysterious to her at a party during the summer.
Speak Journal Response This journal is in response to the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. As a coming-of-age contemporary novel, Speak discusses many sensitive issues that are still prominent even today. In this story, we explore the life of Melinda Sordino, a fourteen-year-old girl who is beginning high school right after experiencing an utterly traumatic event: rape. Melinda is left friendless, with no one to help and support her after what happened.
Speak, a novel written by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a memorable story about a girl who overcomes a horrific experience, rape, and with it, injustice. Melinda, the main protagonist, has an emotional journey, and with the help of her art teacher, Mr. Freeman, survives through this excursion. As Mr. Freeman says, “‘Welcome to the journey’” (12). Mr. Freeman assists Melinda, by constantly questioning her emotional being, turning an art project into a pool of her feelings, and forcing Melinda to see the light in her heart. With Mr. Freeman lifting her emotional baggage, Melinda can finally be free and with that, experience happiness once again.