Speak was written in 1999 by Laurie Halse Anderson. The book is about Melinda, a freshman just starting high school. Melinda starts school off with no friends, she lost the ones she had over the summer. A traumatic event causes Melinda to shut everyone out, and not speak to anyone. Growing up usually takes time, but Melinda is rushed into maturity too soon and must help others do the same.
“Speak,” is a novel by Laurie Halse Anderson. The setting is in Syracuse, New York in the early 2000’s. Melinda Sordino is the narrator of the story and is a freshman at Merryweather High School. During the summer before her freshman year, she goes to a party with her close friends filled with alcohol and music. At the party, she drinks many beers and becomes intoxicated.
In Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Pattillo Beals describes her arduous battle for racial equality in the brutal town of Little Rock, Arkansas in the late 1950s. When she was only twelve years old, Melba survived attempted rape by a white man. Scared and confused, Melba went home and told her family. However, they instructed her to keep quiet about the abuse because they believed getting the police involved would only make things worse. Unfortunately, thousands of sexual assaults still go unreported for a myriad of reasons, including distrust in law enforcement and the criminal justice system, the possibility that the abuser will not be punished, and victim blaming, a common occurrence in our society.
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is a story of a girl that wants to make it through her first year of high school safely. The main character, Melinda, is trying to cope with what happened to her last year at a party. She was sextualy assulted by a guy that is now at the same school as her. The police were called by her and then she lost all her friends because of it. This story is how she tried to make it through her first year without too much pain.
In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson the main character, Melinda, often turns to nature to provide an inspiring story for her feelings of hopelessness to fall back on. Though it is not always blatantly stated, while Melinda comes to terms with the fact that she has been raped nature provides parallels to Melinda's life, symbolizing changing sentiments as they occur. This symbolism manifests in Melinda's interests, the seasons, and her art project. Melinda often mentions plant seeds throughout the story. Melinda's first mention of them is in Biology class when the class dissects apples.
Silence has a defeating presence, one that can both imprison and liberate. In the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, finding one's voice is a huge struggle when the main character, Melinda, goes to a party over the summer and gets sexually assaulted. The story is described in a framework of four main “marking periods’’ as she starts her journey through her first year of high school as a 13 year old girl. At the start of the book (the first marking period), we soon learn that Melinda’s old friends now hate her and begin to get humiliated in various situations. A girl named Heather distracts Melinda from her old best friend Rachel by trying to include her in different clubs.
In the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson a girl Melinda is stuck with a deep dark secret in her. Melinda has just entered high school and there is an incident that happened to her over the summer. Melinda ended up losing all her friends, and becoming depressed. This incident was a senior at her school raping Melinda at a party. Melinda’s friend Rachel had gotten her into a senior party in the summer.
Many students in this novel are punished for speaking out. The, the consequences of not speaking are met with the repercussions of speaking out. This novel is about speaking and, how speaking can be is harmful. Speak highlights the stigma and consequences of speaking out, demonstrated by Melinda’s story, the students, and the staff of Merryweather High School.
Peer pressure influences teenagers by trying to fit in with the rest of the kids that are doing the things that your are not comfortable doing. Laurie Halse Anderson the author of “speak” is saying that peer pressure is not something someone should go through because it causes people to make bad decisions. ` Melinda Sordino was peer pressured by going to the party and getting drunk at the party. (Halse). Anyone can be peer pressured, i was peer pressured, one day i was at a friends house and they pressured me to do ditch class,so i did and now it is my choice to do it or to not do it.
According to a graph in the” RAINN” article, 15% of sexual assaults occur in an open public place. In the book “Speak” Melinda got raped during a friend's party at the end of summer. I read the book “Speak” and articles RAINN, PTSD, Lady Gaga, and The Perfect Victim. They all explain how the victim was affected, how the victim copes with being raped, and the relationships the victim had with people after they were raped. The first similarity i see is how the victim was affected after being raped.
Children in the age range thirteen to fifteen are often transitioning through a critical time of their lives. They frequently look to others as a cicerone on how they themselves should act. In the novel, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda Sordino calls the cops on an end-of-summer party at which she was raped. The novel depicts Melinda’s excursion as to how she copes with the heart-wrenching events that have affected her momentously as well as creating “[a] frightening and sobering look at the cruelty and viciousness that pervade much of contemporary high school life.” (Kirkus Reviews, Pointer Review).
Rape myths are at the center of the problem of how rape and sexual assault cases are looked at, and treated as in society. Rape myths vary, some excuse the rape, others try to minimize the severity of the situation, while others doubt the act even happened in the first place (Levit and Verchick, 196). Some examples of rape myths include: a victim was “asking for it,” a victim’s previous sexual history, regretful sex is not rape, a woman’s “no” means “yes,” and women lie about rape all the time. Rape myths are targeted towards women, not the rapist. Despite, rape myths being proved false by empirical evidence, they are still prevalent in society.
However, even though they are usually not the ones at fault, nothing is ever said about the event. In a report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, it was found that 75 to 77 percent of sexual assaults, attempted rapes, and completed rapes were never reported (“Sexual Assault and Rapes”). Furthermore, the blame of the whole event was never put on the person responsible. Instead, the victim was blamed for not denying the advances, or for not making themselves clearer in their intents(“Sexual Assault and Rapes”). This huge chip to carry often leaves the victims feeling isolated, scared, full of shame, depressed, and with a low self-esteem(“Sexual Assault and Rapes”).
Every sixty-eight seconds, an American is sexually assaulted, and it is stated that only twenty-five out of every one thousand perpetrators will see the consequences of their actions (RAINN). Now, imagine if the world was a place where victims felt as if they could speak up and receive proper assistance without question and judgment. Imagine if every sexual assault case concluded with justice for the victim. Laurie Halse Anderson tells her own story of sexual violence and the struggles of the aftermath through the eyes of high school freshman, Melinda Sordino, in her work Speak. Throughout the novel, Melinda internally fights with herself on who to protect, herself and other females around her, or her attacker’s reputation.
In early America, women had very limited options and lived up to the roles outlined for them; which was the homemaker. They were viewed as the caretaker of the home; making sure the needs of the family were met. It was until the Revolutionary War where things took a turn that would forever mark the impact women had on history for the United States. According to the online article, “Women have a long, but underappreciated history in the American military, serving in every conflict from the American Revolution to the current War on Terror.”
