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Depression In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

1192 Words5 Pages

In this current generation depression is becoming more and more prevalent in impressionable teenagers. This issue of depression is also an important theme in the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson in which the main character Melinda tries to overcome after a traumatic summer party. Throughout the novel there are many displays and signs of Melinda's depression. Of these signs the three most noticeable include her low self-esteem which is seen in every one of her decisions, habits of isolation/social withdrawal at school and even at home, and self harm. She unveils these signs of depression with every test and challenge she faces. Melinda goes into a downward spiral; with her forms of expressing and coping with depression becoming progressively …show more content…

After another evening of her parents arguing and interrogating her she runs to her haven, her bedroom where she attempts to suicide “pitifully”. “I open up a paper clip and scratch it across the inside of my left wrist. Pitiful. [...] I draw little windowcracks of blood, etching line after line until it stops hurting.”, she even treats her attempt a suicide “pitiful”. Melinda cutting herself is a sign of her finding a way to cope with her mental health issues. Dealing with the constant nonsense at school, at home, and in the past leaves Melinda with little breathing space. This is not the only instance of Melinda injuring herself, on many occasions she has coped with the mental suffrage through self harm. She bites her lips until she tastes the blood. “I bite my lip. [...] My lip bleeds a little.”. Her former best friend Rachel or rather Rachelle mouths to Melinda “I hate you”. To bring the pain away from her mind she brings pain to her body. To forget all the things Rachel did, “IT” did. Everytime something triggers her or brings her to the past she resorts to self harm or self degradation. Melinda is in dire need of a guide and someone that will help her. On a long enough time frame this method of coping through self harm will lead Melinda to a worse state than she is now with more physical and mental

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Imagine being through a traumatic event and didn’t know how to tell someone, or maybe not had anyone to talk to about how you were feeling? That's how Melinda Sordino felt as the main character in the book Speak by Halse Anderson. Melinda was going through the hells of highschool alone after being raped at a party, and ditched by all of her friends who she thought cared about her. She is bullied, harassed, picked on, and failing all of her classes. Except for art class where she finds the only place that she feels safe anymore.

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On a seemingly emotional high after attending a high school party as a rising freshman, Melinda’s world got turned upside down when she was taken advantage of by a popular senior jock. Along with the pain of the trauma itself, Melinda was reminded of her terrible ordeal each time she came in contact with Andy: “I want to throw up and I can smell him and I run and he remembers and he knows. He whispers in my ear” (Anderson 86). When Andy encroached on her sanctuary in the art room and destroyed her work, Melinda shut down and locked herself in her closet, where she “stuffed [her] mouth with old fabric and screamed until there were no sounds left under [her] skin” (Anderson 162). While interactions with others could incite her anxiety and feelings of depression, continued encounters with her rapist further aggravated Melinda.

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"No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.” Maya Angelou. In Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson this is shown through, Melinda Sordino, a freshman, starts high school with no friends because she called the police at a summer party after being raped. As she struggles through her first year of high school, she realizes that in order to grow, she must find her voice, which she eventually does, and things start to look better for her. Anderson uses the mouth as a motif to trace Melinda’s personal growth throughout the book from depressed and not speaking to coming out of her depression and speaking again.

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Melinda is a Freshman in high school, and she doesn’t speak throughout the whole entire year, because of an issue she faced during the summer. Laurie Halse-Anderson tells a lot in her book Speak about how many important issues young people face every day. In this essay, there will be three motifs about the themes Laurie Anderson put in her book, Melinda’s tree, the weather, and Melinda’s lips. Melinda faced a lot of issues, but there were somethings that gave off how she was feeling. The first was her tree project.

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One of them is how Melinda must deal with the trauma of Andy’s assault. Melinda constantly sees Andy around school and it terrifies her. Just the sight of him is enough to cause a panic and remind her of the night it happened. Melinda is left with excess anxiety, and it causes her to behave coldly towards others. This results in Melinda’s only friend abandoning her because her behavior is too upsetting.

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These conversations also cause Melinda to struggle with her self-image. When someone commits an act of self-harm as Melinda did, most of the time they want help. This was all that Melinda wanted from her mother, yet all she got from her mother was an unmoving, emotionally unavailable, brick wall. To add to this, Mrs. Sordino essentially

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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).

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In contrast, when Melinda decided to tell Rachel about Andy raping her, it is a turning point in her life. “Rachel writes in a heavy hand. WHO DID IT??? I turn the page. Andy Evans” (184).

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Melinda feels that because of what she did she is treated poorly which leads to her having depression. “... I don't have anyone to sit with. I am an outcast. There is no point in looking for my ex friends.” (4) Melinda is right.

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Maria Boyd’s novel “Will” clearly demonstrates and showcases multiple existing values, beliefs and ideologies. One such theme which we constantly see is that of depression. Throughout the novel, this theme is challenged and developed on. One such example Will, the protagonist, and his one sided conversations with his deceased father. This constant reminiscence of his father are only present in the latter half of the book when the theme of depression is much more prevalent.

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Her grades weren’t helping her either, She was consistently getting made fun of being talked about and abandoned by everyone because they didn't know the truth due to Melinda not speaking up for herself. The author also symbolizes mirrors in the book because Melinda took the mirror down from her room due to herself not being able to recognize herself anymore, she was a whole new person she never knew. Melinda also took a maya angelou poster and covered her mirror in her safe place. Maya Angelou was an author who was a selective mute and there is a connection between her and Melinda as they both did not speak, Melinda for the first 3 quarters of school was very quiet and to herself. Melinda heavily avoided Andy Evans the guy who

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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 Melinda admits to herself that she was raped, Melinda starts to realize that

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The cause of Melinda’s dreary mood obviously comes from IT’s abuse. Andy Evans constantly harassing Melinda in the hallways reminds her of the horrid rape and keeps the image in her mind. This is why Melinda cannot wake up from her nightmare and is emotionally unstable. To sum up, Melinda’s dismal mood is greatly portrayed through the metaphors of

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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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