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Trauma In Speak

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Sexual assault remains the most underreported crime for teens as well as adults, (Why Don’t They Tell? In the award-winning novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson writes about a character named Melinda Sorinado who was raped in the summer of freshman year and during freshman year we read about her dealing with the trauma she experienced. “Its choppy, nonlinear narrative gradually reveals that shortly before the first day of school, Melinda went to a party, where she was raped by a handsome, popular senior… But also, I had been sexually assaulted a month before ninth grade started,” (Interview with Author). Due to him being so popular, she didn’t tell anyone, some of the reasons that may have happened could be. Teens who experience this level …show more content…

According to the stand-up placer presentation, a short-term effect of trauma includes cognitive issues like depression(standup placer presentation). As Malinda deals with her depression she hurts herself… “I open up a paper clip and scratch it across the inside of my left wrist. Pitiful. If a suicide attempt is a cry for help, then what is this? A whimper, a peep? I draw little window cracks of blood, etching line after line until it stops hurting. It looks like I arm-wrestled a rosebush,” (Anderson 87). As she has no one to speak to about her experiences she has no way to express her feelings or to speak to someone so looks to other ways to ask for help. Leading to self-harm and destroying her own body and mind. Another reason she commits self-harm is that she has no one to share her feelings with and to take the weight off of her shoulders leaving her to not know what to do. Depression can lead to many other mental disabilities, and issues such as very very low self-esteem. We can see how low Malinda's self-esteem is when she is in the gym shooting baskets and she was offered to teach the boy's basketball team to improve her grade in P.E., yet she believes that she… “I’m sure I was a huge disappointment. I’m not pretty or smart or athletic. I’m just like them - an ordinary drone dressed in secrets and lies,” (Anderson 70). Her self-esteem is so low that even though she outshot the whole boy’s basketball team in free throws and shooting in general she still believes that she is just another average person. These thoughts are due to the long-term effects of sexual assault. Some of the long-term effects can be very low self-esteem, depression, sleep deprivation, and most importantly PTSD. Teens who do not share their experiences of sexual assault and other extremely traumatic instances can develop many long-term effects spoken

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