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Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson: An Analysis

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You ever thought of how your actions affect others? Or even if you indirectly have caused someone an awful day that you could have prevented? Or instead of a wonderful day? Well, “Speak” is a novel written by Laurie Halse Anderson that talks about a 15-year-old teen’s life throughout high school. Her name is Melinda Sordino who had suffered a sexual assault from a senior at her high school, Merryweather High School, in a summer party before entering school. This novel describes her emotional journey through school and how her relationships with others as her family, friends, teachers, and even herself have changed or influenced her actions. The theme of Speak is one choice or action can affect others. Andy Evans sexually assaulting Melinda causes her to become severely depressed, Mr. Freeman’s supportive art class helps Melinda heal and find herself, and Melinda’s “friends” influenced her to speak up. Firstly, the cause of Melinda becoming severely depressed was Andy Evans sexually assaulting her. Throughout the film and book, “Speak” we could notice Melinda’s depression, emotional and physical change, and altered lifestyle since the rape. “Two muddy-circle eyes under black-dash …show more content…

Furthermore, Melinda criticizing her physical appearance is a sign of how she mainly criticized and changes her clothing or way of looking due to she had major physical damage of being raped making her don’t want to remember the “Melinda who was raped.” Also, this caused a huge emotional and physiological depression where she can’t stand alone; she needs to speak up. Lastly, the action of Melinda needing to put the mirror away just because she can’t bare herself is a sign of a deep depression because of the lack of confidence and battle between herself. This means Andy Evans sexually assaulting her was the reason for her depression at such a young

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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.

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Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson should be mandatory reading for 8th graders due to its take on how trauma can affect the lives of its survivors. Through completed writing, the National Book Award finalist and Golden Kite Award winner, Laurie Anderson captures the thoughts of Melinda Sordino. After she gets raped and has to deal with a misunderstanding that leaves her silent and outcast. This short book of 224 pages is mostly written in short statements. From casual thoughts such as, “I zone out,” to ones with impact like, “Why go to school.”

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Speak, the story of Melinda Sordino, the girl without a voice. In speak the main protagonist, Melinda, has to go through high school with almost everyone in her school hating her because of a misunderstanding, she called the police on a summer party because she was sexually assaulted but never had the courage to say anything. Throughout the book the writer, Laurie Anderson uses trees to symbolize changes in Melinda’s life like (insert thing here), how Melinda needs to remove the “dead branches” from her life so she can move on and grow from her experiences, and how Melinda was finally able to “cut the dead branches” from her life and learn to speak up for herself. A good example of Melinda’s transformation is shown in this next quote. “He’s

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Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is a book about a girl named Melinda Sordino. In the beginning of this book the audience meets Melinda as she is the main character and she describes her first day of high school starting with an assembly. Throughout the book you read about her life but she goes back to the past recalling of something that happened at the end of the summer; in a couple of instances she comes across someone that she refers to as “IT”. When reading you don't know who this “IT” is but it is developed over the story by her having flashbacks to that night or dropping a hint of what happened. During a seminar at the beginning of the book Melinda meets someone named Heather who is new and becomes her friend but ultimately leaves her

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From that point onward, Melinda hides from herself by taking down or covering mirrors, an act to forget her past. It is made clear that Melinda dislikes looking at herself as it reminds her of what happened that night at the party. As can be seen in this quote, “I watch myself in the mirror across the room... Two muddy-circle eyes

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His brutally honest words to her present the reader with a harsh reality: the life of one person (Marilyn) cannot be saved at the expense of seven

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She is reminded of the violence that torn not only communities apart but families as well. How the social norms of the day restricted people’s lives and held them in the balance of life and death. Her grandfathers past life, her grandmother cultural silence about the internment and husband’s affair, the police brutality that cause the death of 4 young black teenagers. Even her own inner conflicts with her sexuality and Japanese heritage. She starts to see the world around her with a different

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One will eventually come across the day where they are able to figure out who they truly are as a person. A discovery like this will lead to new chapters of life and start new beginnings. Although finding one 's identity can be difficult to understand and accept, it is crucial in life to discover oneself. In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, a teenage girl, who had to overcome and deal with an awful tragedy, takes readers on the long journey she walked before finding meaning and value in who she is as a person.

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(Anderson, 165). In this part of the book melinda is watching an episode of oprah and it's an episode about a girl who's been raped and melinda's subconscious wakes up and makes it seem like oprah is talking to her telling her she was raped, she just started to come to realization that she really was raped at the party and she was getting really overwhelmed and started feeling sick. She already knew she got raped, but she was in doubt and she didn't want it to be true which is why it took so long for her to

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Melinda was raped as a young girl heading into her first year of high school and what happened after that was a catastrophe and would change her life and her peers view of her. Melinda perpetually haunted by her treacherous past memories struggled to stay happy and sane throughout her overwhelming first year of high school. Melinda evolves over time as she longs to be her past happy self again she slowly but surely begins to regain her happiness and self-confidence. With life-changing events coming at Melinda every which way, she experiences the highs and the lows and finds little things in life like her extraordinary passion for art to help her get through the toughest times in her life. This story will make your heart melt with sorrow and compassion, but also bring to you a remarkable story with realistic like events and settings.

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After World War 2, things got pretty intense between the former allies Soviet Union and the United States. For example, because the United States and the Soviet Union had different views and different stand on human rights, economic freedom, religious belief, self-determination and individual liberties, it sparks a war between them known as the Cold War. Now, the Cold War was different than any previous war that ever happened in history because this war was an ideological contest between the Communist countries and the Western countries. But let’s focus our attention to the man that was leading America after World War 2- Harry Truman.

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Symbolism is the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character. In Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson uses literary devices to help the reader better understand Melinda’s personal changes and growth. Trees, lips, and coldness are all symbolically used to represent the changes of Melinda. Throughout the novel, trees play a big part in symbolizing Melinda. Melinda is constantly drawing and relating to trees in the book.

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Isolation is when one is set apart from others and is virtually alone. In Laurie Anderson’s Speak, the protagonist, Melinda, isolates herself and is further isolated from others. Isolation can be seen through three symbols: lips, mirrors and a closet. Melinda thinks no one cares about what she has to say, resulting in silence. After the incident in the summer, Melinda cannot bare to look at herself.

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The novel Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is about a girl named Melinda, who shows signs of depression throughout the story. She has no friends and is hated by people she doesn’t even know. This is because she called the cops at a party, where she was raped. Anderson includes literary elements to show how Melinda is depressed. Throughout the novel, she uses many different literary elements to show Melinda’s conflict.

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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.

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