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Factors Shaping Melinda's Identity In The Book Speak

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To begin with, the book Speak starts with a girl named Melinda who has just started high school after a terrible summer. Two factors that shape Melinda’s identity are her friends and family. As she starts the first day of high she wears the wrong clothes and has the wrong attitude for high school. She realizes that she has no friends and all of her middle school friends have broke away and gone to their own groups. Melinda met a girl named heather who moved to her high school and they became friends for a little while. As the first day of high came to an end, all Melinda could think about was how this school year was going to go. Secondly, Melinda and her parents don’t show a really good relationship. When Melinda was little her parents
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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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In Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel, Speak, Melinda is a dynamic character whose behaviors, thoughts, and words change and reflect the theme of the novel, not to keep ones emotions bottled up. First, Melinda acts in a shy and quiet manner because she had got her friends into trouble when she called the cops at the party. However when Melinda begins to make her own choicesfor herself and not let her emotions get to her, she realizes she will not let other people make her own descions. This is evident when Anderson writes “I mean no I won`t help you” (Anderson 179). This shows how Melinda will not be walked on by her peers.

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She finds her with her mom and sister and Dare, who is her friend. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. It is centered around a 13-year-old girl named Melinda Sordino. She was raped at a party over the summer, which resulted in her calling the police. She is faced with trauma and isolation throughout the school year.

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675 Words | 3 Pages

and she didn’t talk to anyone. Melinda has been trying to overcome her trauma since the start of her freshman year but she hasn't been able to find the courage to overcome it until the end of the year. The book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is about a girl named Melinda that had a traumatic experience at a party during the summer because of this Melinda has a hard time making friends going into the 9th grade. Melinda is also conflicted about her individuality and questions if she can trust anyone with being herself.

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157 Words | 1 Pages

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is about a girl named Melinda who goes through traumatic events throughout her freshman year of high school. The novel also examines her relationships and attempts to communicate with other characters, as well as how she finds the courage to speak up for herself. Trees and seeds play a major symbolic role in the novel because they represent Melinda’s growth throughout the story. Throughout the novel, trees and seeds are mentioned numerous times.

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In Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character is Melinda. Melinda is starting high school and is trying to survive highschool at Merryweather because she has no friends. The author wants Melinda to speak about her problems to her teacher, her parents, or Heather. Throughout the book Melinda has problems with her family.

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2139 Words | 9 Pages

Melinda was less aware of the impact her teachers would have on her life, but received similar support to Anderson’s from her art teacher. After attempting to teach Melinda to use her voice through art, Mr. Freeman eventually tells her, “‘Melinda, [...] You're a good kid. I think you have a lot to say. I’d like to hear it’”

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228 Words | 1 Pages

The book Speak by Laurie Anderson is about a high school freshmen girl named Melinda that has a big secret that she has been keeping since the end of the summer. A big incident happened at the end of summer when a party has gone wrong. Melinda is having trouble academically, her grades are going down and she is starting to skip school. The book shows that Melinda is lacking communication.

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High school, it’s a necessary part of life, yet no one wants to be in it. This is the case and more for freshman Melinda. Melinda is the protagonist in the book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson. She is going through a very rough time that she is having trouble dealing with on her own. Before her freshman year of high school she was raped at a party, no one knew that this happened.

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In the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda gives a really good example of character development throughout the story. Melinda just starts her freshman year at high school. Over the summer her and her friends went to a party and Melinda gets raped by a boy named Andy Evans and ends up calling the police, she didn't tell anyone why she called the police, causing her friends and everyone at the party to reject her. Melinda’s only friend is a new girl named heather. Melinda gets depressed and starts expressing her pain through stuff like biting her lips and her nails, and not talking.

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1572 Words | 7 Pages

The majority misinterpret Narcissism and vanity as false confidence in a subject. However, many individuals struggle with a disorder directly related to this inability to admit that one is wrong. Narcissistic Personality Disorder, as defined by the Mayo clinic in their article “Narcissistic Personality Disorder”, is ”a mental health condition in which people have an unreasonably high sense of their own importance”(Narcissistic Personality Disorder). This definition serves as a great representation of narcissism because of the use of the word unreasonably. It is important to remember that vanity is different from confidence in the sense that those affected will overexaggerate their achievements in an attempt to justify their aplomb.

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Throughout the novel Speak, Melinda’s mouth becomes a symbol. As she works her way through her trauma, she develops a compulsion to bite her lips when faced with a difficult or stressful situation. It’s not uncommon for victims of her sort to take on some form of self destructive habit like this— generally, for either the conscious or unconscious purpose of punishing oneself for whatever event took place. It’s a guilt mechanism. This is, however, only one half of the symbol.

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268 Words | 2 Pages

• Melinda 's silence is triggered by different causes. The tragic event of the summer scars her deeply. By being raped she feels something has been taken away from her, as would any rape victim. The silence helps her avoid the memories that will always haunt her. I believe she is afraid of people’s perceptions of the truth.

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1218 Words | 5 Pages

She tries to navigate through her first year of high school, and it seems like the entire student body despises her; she feels more alone than ever. I will be analyzing and making connections to three specific elements in this novel: the search for one’s identity, Melinda’s inner conflict,

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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.

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