ipl-logo

Emotions In The Novel Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

462 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effects of bullying on children and youth

Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel Speak reveals a lot about the main character’s psychological state through their emotions, behaviours and feelings. The main character, Melinda Sordino is a high school freshman year (grade 9) student who is disliked by everyone around her. All she wants is to be happy, which in Melinda’s point of view is “being accepted by [her] friends” (7). Melinda is constantly blamed by the students of Merry Weather High because she called the police at an end of school summer party. Melinda tries her best to ignore all the hurtful comments, she believes that no one will ever believe her if she told the truth as to what really happened the night she decided to call the police. Her belief is strong she decides to not even try telling the truth, but she does want to be heard and understood by her peers. This passage shows that Melinda is a girl who is being unfairly punished for doing something right, this affects her emotionally and she starts becoming silent. …show more content…

She feels as if she is going to be all alone till the time she graduates. All these negative feelings lower her self-esteem, self-confidence and her self-worth. Because of her lack of self-confidence and her social status, Melinda isn’t a part of any clans, thus she doesn’t have any friends. The inferiority of her feelings affect the way of her thinking and decision making. She What she doesn’t realize is that she needs to overcome the negativity in her mind. With all the negativity Melinda starts to feel completely helpless, hopeless and unmotivated to strive for

Show More
Related
370 Words | 2 Pages

Melinda`s behavior reflcets the theme because she has come to the realization that keeping her feelings bottled up will not

Read More
620 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
307 Words | 2 Pages

Throughout the book, Melinda has problems with her family. For example a problem with her family is that her parents don't listen or talk to her. Also her dad just comes home drunk not talking to her. Also Melinda has a lot of problems with her friends like. The problems with here friends is they don’t like each other anymore and the readers don’t know why.

Read More
695 Words | 3 Pages

From the beginning of the book, where she seeks to avoid herself to now where Melinda empowers herself and stands up against

Read More
1196 Words | 5 Pages

The novel “Speak”, written by Laurie Halse Anderson first published in the year 1999, deals with Melinda, an “outcast” (p. 4), who experiences her first year of high school while simultaneously trying to cope with the aftermath of sexual abuse during a party, which consists mainly of her not being able to speak. Since we are all aware of the fact that Melinda’s traumatic event led to a certain degree of dehumanization for her, the following words intend to focus on and elaborate Melinda’s struggle in school; how she views her teachers, her marks, her periods and to some degree also her peers and classmates. Starting right at the beginning Melinda enters her high school life with a healthy amount of prejudice. Probably having heard or

Read More
909 Words | 4 Pages

She almost swore herself to complete silence, because of a dramatic experience that she had the summer before her freshman year of high school. “NO I DON’T WANT TO!”(Anderson 135). Throughout the entire novel Melinda’s Attacker has stalked her like a wolf stalks a rabbit. He is known as IT for the majority of the story. IT has been in Melinda’s

Read More
583 Words | 3 Pages

Melinda is isolated from everybody at school, this affected her ability to speak openly about her pain with the strong animosity held upon her. At a pep rally, Melinda is publicly humiliated about the party by a group of students sitting behind her. “‘You’re Melinda Sordino?’ I turn around. She blows a black bubble and sucks it back into her mouth.

Read More
755 Words | 4 Pages

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).

Read More
849 Words | 4 Pages

Not even Melinda’s “best friends” took the time to listen to the actual story. Melinda’s only response to this horrible incident is silence. This is only the start of Melinda Sordino's story. There is much more pain and hardship that will come throughout the novel

Read More
924 Words | 4 Pages

The new Melinda sees that she needs to say something and she works up the courage to help her once-friend. This really shows Melinda development as a person. She is overcoming her pain and

Read More
848 Words | 4 Pages

Consequently, Melinda’s character is one which most teens relate to. Friendship is very important aspect of high school. In high school friendships start to change and so do people. People feel like they have to be cool and popular in high school and that's when everything starts to change for Melinda.

Read More
1218 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
1205 Words | 5 Pages

By gaining new allies and friends, finding a passion in art, and being able to express herself and confide in people, she becomes stronger. With this, the tone develops and changes while it slowly adapts when Melinda again talks about her closet saying, “I hang out in my refurbished closet. It is shaping up nicely… Maya Angelou’s picture watches me while I sweep and mop the floor, while I scrub the shelves, while I chase the spiders out of the corners. I do a little bit of work everyday…

Read More
734 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
1197 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More

More about Emotions In The Novel Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

Related Topics

Open Document