Emotions In The Novel Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

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.

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