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Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, By Julia Alvarez And Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

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Lee 1 Breann Lee Period 3 22 September 2014 Compare and Contrast Paper The books “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents”, by Julia Alvarez and “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson are very similar novels. The main characters share similar experiences growing up in their New York setting that shapes them throughout the book. Both Melinda and Yolanda feel like outcasts because of their low self-esteem and their problems communicating. In “Speak” on Melinda's first day of school Anderson writes “I am clanless…I have entered high school with the wrong hair, the wrong clothes, and definitely the wrong attitude. No one will speak to me. I am outcast.” (Anderson4) This demonstrates Melinda's opinion about herself as well as what other people think of her. Melinda's lack of a “clan” shows her inability to make friends and shows us that she is different. Like Melinda, Yolanda also has a hard time making friends. “ I have never felt at home in the States, never" (Alverez12) This shows Yolanda's hatred for the place she grew up. Yolanda was picked on as a child and abused as an adult and therefore left as soon as she could. Upon coming back, her family figured she would stay, not knowing her true feelings on the situation. It is evident Melinda experiences a more arduous …show more content…

In “Speak' when Melinda struggles to fall asleep she says to herself “i just want to sleep. The whole point of not talking about it, of silencing the memory, is to make it go away. It wont. I'll need brain surgery to cut it out of my head.”(81-82Anderson). This demonstrates that Melinda is fighting her own memory, and it is driving her crazy. Like Melinda, Yolanda faces and similar struggle with her mental state. After Yolanda's resent stay at a mental hospital Alvarez writes “Doc, rock, sock, luck. So many words. There is no end to what can be said about the world.” These are the first

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