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Essay On Struggle In Speak And Things Fall Apart

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How does one deal with challenges thrown at them? By ignoring them and hope things will change for the better? In both stories Speak and Things Fall Apart, Anderson and Achebe have bothe of the main characters in their novels deal with challenges thrown at them. In Speak, Melinda deals with being an outcast in her social class and also deals with the fact that she’s been raped. This causes Melinda to feel depressed during her Freshman year. While in Things Fall Apart Okonkwo deals with being exiled from his clan and deals with his internal conflict about how the clan is becoming more women than men. Despite the fact that Okonkwo and Melinda undergo significant changes in the novels Things Fall Apart and Speak, it is clear that Melinda endures a more arduous journey of growth in regard to the lack of parental support, their social classes, and their internal conflict. Both Melinda and Okonkwo experiences the lack of parental support. In Speak, Melinda’s parents rarely listen and understand Melinda such as, when Melinda’s dad arrives home, he doesn’t notice that her daughter Melinda was home. Anderson writes, “By the time Dad unlocks the door, everything looks the way he wants to see it, and I have vanished.”(Anderson pg.15) This demonstrates that Melinda and her parents have very little to none communication as a family. Which then causes her to feel the theme alienated. With Melinda feeling alienated, …show more content…

In Speak, when Melinda is the first person on the bus on her first day of high school, no one that was picked up sat next to her. Anderson writes, “As we leave the last stop, I am the only person sitting alone.”(Anderson pg.3) This demonstrates her being the theme isolation. When Melinda is the only person on the bus sitting alone, it causes her to feel isolated or being an outcast from her social class. With Melinda being an outcast, isolated,

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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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