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Fear In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

484 Words2 Pages

Fear is the unpleasant feeling caused by the thought of being in danger possibly causing pain. There are many examples of fear. It can be seen as the close call with death, the hope to never be caught by another predator. Fear can also be a source for making the most wisest decisions, to stay alive, or to keep out of unnecessary trouble. Fear can be beaten, overcome with and can be conquered. [Text] Fear is a very strong feeling. There are many fears of many things. It scares people half to death, it can keep them out of harm's way. Fear is also used in literature, and many novels including Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson. Speak is a novel about a 9th Grade girl named Melinda Sordino, who is raped by her attacker named Andy Evans. Melinda goes silent after the rape and eventually gains the confidence to fight back. In the novel she was trapped, she said, “The only sound I can make is a whimper.” but her spirit and soul remained intact but she was silent, invisible, and anointed. On page 194 where the quote above is located, Melinda was ready to finally rise and she did, but when Andy came to her den, she became frightened, and scared by …show more content…

She is an iconic character for overcoming The Beast. There are many other examples, of her fear and especially overcoming it everywhere in many stories. For example, a song titled “I Walk To My Own Song” By Stratovarius, in a stanza it says, “High I fly, I touch the sky, Far above the frozen minds, You can't kill my dreams, You can't kill my spirit, I was born to be free.” Melinda was very much pinned down after being raped, but she then rises above Evans and screams no. She shows that she cannot be touched, she flew high, and she showed Evans then in the closet that she is better than him, that Evans cannot kill her dreams or spirit. Melinda was always meant to be free, and not to be guided and forced to hide from IT. In that time Melinda had beaten

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Melinda is scared for her life because of Andy and states him as “made out of slabs of stone” and “enormous” (193). The first time that Andy and Melinda were together, Melinda was drunk and Andy raped her and she did not fight back. During the time Melinda said a small “no” but Andy covered her mouth and kept doing what he was doing.

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In the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, she is trying to say that friends and friendships change over time. The first change that we found out about in the book was the group the Plane Janes that Melinda was in and they were best friend but they split over the summer, which was a change in a big group of friends. A second change between friendships was Ivy and Melinda they were apart of the Plane Janes but were never close until the ending of the school year. They were in the same art class which made them become close, through their artwork, which was a good change of friendship.

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Throughout the documentary “Well Founded Fear” by Shari Robertson and Michael Camerini asylum seekers told their story about the reason they should be one out of every two hundred to be granted asylum in the United States. The search for asylum is one that is sometimes disheartening, uncertain, and unpredictable. As humans come to the United States in search of asylum, asylum officers are tasked with deciding the fate of asylum seekers. There are problems with the process of being granted asylum so it is necessary that some solutions are developed.

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Additionally, Melinda standing up to Heather and asking her mom to redecorate shows how she is speaking up and finding her voice. Finally, the motif is shown again when Melinda is stuck in the closet with Andy and she says, “No. A sound explodes from me. “NNNOOO!!!” (Anderson 194).

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In the novel Full Tilt by Neal Shusterman, the main character, Blake, is trapped in an amusement park where he has to fight against his biggest fears to save his younger brother, Quinn. In order to survive, Blake must ride a total of seven rides. Each ride represents one of his secret fears. The ride that represents his absolute biggest fear was the Kamikaze.

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Due to her inability to tell anyone what happened she loses the ability to speak and she starts distancing herself from her family and friends. Throughout the book, there are symbolic items that help us know how Melinda is feeling and they also represent the stages Melinda went through

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It 's easier to put yourself on top and to dream happily than to live in fear. Although others will look at it like you’re living a lie and advise you to be truthful about your situations, that is not always the best step to take. In Fear by Gary Soto, Frankie keeps quiet about his situation, acts hard, and makes his life sounds better than it really is. Even though his peers know; empty refrigerator, father’s gone, mother’s sad and the beating, but none of them decides to stand up for him. It 's better to live in dreams than to face the devastating truth.

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She also told Heather “… That’s not what I mean, I mean no, won’t help you. ”(Anderson 179). This was one of the first times that she stood up for what she wanted. After her fight with Heather, Melinda had a confidence boost and felt strong and powerful. Towards the middle of the novel she was getting more positive feedback from her friend Ivy.

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Near the end of the book, Melinda started standing up for herself and developing a new confidence. “I’m tough enough to play and strong enough to win.”(pg 170) For most of the book, Melinda always thought she was doing everything wrong “ I feel bad that I didn’t.” (pg 72) was a common theme for her. Melinda always did whatever people told her to do especially Heather “‘ I won’t help you.”’

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The Elevator. Literary Analysis What is fear? Fear is a feeling induced by perceived danger or threat that occurs in certain types of organism how does the author illustrate the main character's inability to overcome its fears william sleator shows that martin is unable to overcome his fears by building suspense because he is claustrophobic paranoid may suffer cacomorphobia. I am scared of dolls which the scientific meaning is Pediophobia because i feel like they have minds of their own and one time when i was little my cousin would move the doll when i wasn't looking to make me think it was alive i have a longer story on where the fear started it all started when i was watching the movie chucky with my cousins i didn't know what it was about

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In Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, an Indian boy named Pi is stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean for 227 days with a tiger, named Richard Parker, to keep him company. While Pi is on the boat, he has to take care of himself and Richard Parker to avoid being killed by the tiger. Being all alone in the middle of the Pacific with a tiger strikes fear into Pi. He says, “...If your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you” (162). Fear can be best recognized as the ‘unknown’ because when we do not know something, our minds create the worst possible situation.

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In the vast African Savanna, many people are sleeping at night in the middle of it all, cozy near a campfire. A twig breaks, and one of the men wake up, who later decides to go back to sleep. The sound comes again more frequently, which is when everyone has woken up. On the southern side, they see a moving animal just walking in circles around them. Everyone is afraid, but they do not know what it is… until is roars.

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How can fear affect lives? Fear is very powerful and sometimes creates pain also can make many people hallucinate many terrible things if imagination takes over. It is everywhere even if it is not reasonable but it affects anyone at some point of their lives and they usually panic when they are not sure what is going on. When not being in a safe environment, fear of the unknown, and scary entity are present together our imagination can take over and we lose our minds because of many hallucinations.

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796 Words | 4 Pages

Why do we respond physically to fear? Why do we respond physically to fear? Well, for starters, fear happens to be one of the most natural emotions a human being can have. Fear goes along with being startled, or surprised, even being worried goes along with fear. Fear is more of an instinct than a reaction.

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603 Words | 3 Pages

(Tyrrell) Fear which could also be known as terror, fright, horror, or panic all are things that everyone goes through at least once in their lifetime. The items or events people are scared of vary; the most common ones are: fear of flying, fear of public speaking, fear of heights, and more that are well known. (Nash) According to Merriam-Webster the definition of fear is to be afraid of something or someone that is unpleasant to that person.

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