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Importance Of Communication In Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak

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In Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda struggles with communication. Melinda is at a party, she is attacked and raped by a student who attends her school, Merryweather high. When it is time to head back to school after the summer, Melinda decides not to talk to anyone. She became completely mute. In the beginning of the book, Melinda is thinking about her attack when her " throat squeezes shut...I can't even look at myself." (pg.28) Melinda was so embarrassed that she did want to talk to anyone about it. Melinda demonstrates lack of communication during this time, if she had talked to someone they could have helped her, and made sure she was ok. Melinda thinks that “[She] should probably tell someone, just tell someone. Get it over with. …show more content…

Throughout the book Melinda is pushed away from her group of friends from the previous year. When a new girl, Heather comes to school Melinda thinks it is a perfect chance for a new friend. During a long weekend, Heather invites Melinda over to her house. Melinda “wanted to sleep in but Heather really, really, really wanted [her] to come over.” (pg. 32) Melinda and Heather have grown their friendship since the day they met. They started eating lunch together and then began hanging out outside of school. Now on this long weekend, Heather asks Melinda to come over to her house, and even though Melinda wanted to sleep in, she decides to go to her house anyways, to make Heather happy. This shows the strength of their friendship, when Melinda says she “wanted to sleep in”, she goes to Heather's house anyways to make her happy. Later in the book, Heather asks Melinda to go to her house to talk about some problems that she was having with Martha another girl in her grade. Heather “Left a note in [Melinda’s] locker asking [Melinda] to go to her house after school” (pg.79). This quote is showing the relationship between Melinda and Heather. Heather is very comfortable around Melinda, she was able to ask Melinda to go to her house without feeling embarrassed or scared. Laurie Halse Anderson tries to tell the reader that a well developed friendship is a very valuable

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At this point in the novel, the only thing revealed about what happened was that she had called the cops on a high school party during summer, leaving her friends mad at her. Melinda went through the first few classes and lunch on her terrible first day, finding them all completely miserable.

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Summary Of Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

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In Speak, Melinda begins recovering from her attack by trying to do better at school and starting to speak out. To begin with, Melinda shows her recovery by trying to do better at school. For instance, she starts doing better in her gym class. While playing tennis, Melinda tries her best to win against Nicole, the athletic goddess. “The ball explodes on the court, leaving a crater before Nicole can blink.

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Melinda is not telling people about her emotions, instead she is hiding in a closet away from her fears and

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This finally shows how much Melinda has grown and how much she has found her voice. Melinda's growth is demonstrated through her finally being able to say no to Andy unlike the first time, and Melinda saying no shows how she was able to find her voice. Melinda's growth and escape from depression is expressed at the end of the

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This causes her to be unable to speak as normal and express herself only through self physical acts of hurting herself. However, through her pain, she begins to grow from a victim to a survivor and understands that the only way to go against evil is to speak out against it. Melinda in Speak is a high school freshman who is raped by Andy Evans who is a senior in high school. Due to him raping her she loses her ability to speak normally and say what she feels and how she feels. Melinda gains her confidence to speak in public freely again by the end of the story.

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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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This moment is a huge turning point in Melinda 's life. This marks the moment when she finally speaks up about what happened. This event shows so much about who Melinda was and is becoming. Prior to telling Rachel, Melinda decides to send Rachel a note warning her about Andy. “I groan and rip out a piece of notebook paper.

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The three reasons in speak is not talking to her parents, Antisocial, and not talking to her teachers. When melinda doesn’t want to talk to her parents about school she will be alone. “The parents are making threatening noises, turning dinner into performance art, with dad doing his arnold schwarzenegger imitation and mom playing glenn close in one of her psycho roles. Melinda is the victim” (page 35).

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Melinda, in a lot of ways, starts out like that it the book. She becomes a shell of herself from before the party happened and because no one else was there, she is lonely and doesn't have anybody to go to and to make matters even worse, she’s covered by the reputation that she has formed. In the book, Laurie Halse Anderson uses symbolism to convey exactly what Melinda can't say. In the beginning of the book, Melinda starts high school carrying her emotional wounds with her after something happens mysterious to her at a party during the summer.

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