How To Use Violet And Melinda's Struggle To Contain Power In Speak

As communication theory scholars have mused, communication and power are inextricably linked to each other. M. T. Anderson’s Feed and Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak explore this connection, as forces in the novels work to silence the leading female protagonists, Violet and Melinda. When the characters lose their ability to speak, they begin to fade away to nothingness, Melinda to depression and Violet to death. When Violet and Melinda are silenced, they are denied the power that comes from the creation of community, history, and knowledge, and without this power, they cannot function in society. Power is so essential to the characters in these novels, because the amount of power a character has is equal to the amount of agency the character

Unlike Melinda in Speak, Violet is not the only character who struggles with communication in the novel. Because of the feed, the language the characters use in the novel has deteriorated. In a conversation with Titus, Violet observes that when “you have the feed all your life, you’re brought up to not think about things […] It’s something that makes me angry these days. Because of the feed, we’re raising a nation of idiots” (M. Anderson 113). The technology of the feed has created a barrier to knowledge, because the constant influx of media and advertisements drives people’s attention away from the facts. This lack of knowledge translates to the type of language the characters use. In various points throughout the novel, Titus does not know “weird words” that Violet uses, like “susceptible” (M. Anderson 167, 170). This creates a barrier in conversation between Violet and Titus, limiting the communication they can

Narration and narrative are inherent to the acquisition of power through communication. By communicating individual histories, people are placed in a specific function in their community. Denying the creation of those stories places people outside of their community with no reference for how they should function in that community. The alienation created by the inability to communicate is reinforced by this inability to create a history for themselves. The importance of history can be seen in the conclusions of the novel. In the last scene of Speak, Mr. Freeman asks Melinda if she wanted to share her story with him. She responds, “”Let me tell you about it,’” and this action of communication ushers in not only healing, but power as Melinda regains her agency and status in the community (L. Anderson