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Keeping Secrets In Melinda Sordino's Speak

487 Words2 Pages

How bad can keeping a secret impact your life? What kind of scenarios and possibilities could come of keeping one little dark secret? In the novel Speak, Melinda Sordino, a young high schooler, has to deal with her decision to keep quiet about being sexually assaulted. Her life spirals out of control as her friends and parents grow ever more distant. She views her teachers with negative outlooks, authority as a priority fear. Even new friends she makes throughout the story abandon her because of the depression given to her by the incident that she is keeping secret. Secrets, no matter how trivial or serious, can impact your life and your relationships in troubling ways when silenced. Melinda’s life has done a one hundred and eighty degree turn because of her silence. Before the incident of sexual assault, she had a decent life with her old friends. Everyone turned on her …show more content…

Unfortunately, her parents are unfamiliar to her, and she does not tell or show pain except through physical actions. Her parents become oblivious to her plight, for she will not tell them what happened to her. Melinda’s mouth also closes a surprising amount of times when confronted by just about anything. For example, she is completely silent when faced down by her guidance counselor and parents. Her parents go as far to ask her why she is silent. She kept her secret so long that she now views it as a second nature to be quiet. Resentment and hate are two very strong words usually not used to describe friends. Her relationship with Heather turns sour when Heather decides that the depressed girl with a bad reputation cannot be her friend. Melinda cannot even start over with new friends. Without coming clean and freeing her “reputation” she is unable to change. When she finally lets go of the secret, it relieves her, for her friends actually feel sorry for her. Her relationships improve and she can finally feel somewhat

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Melinda’s character develops tremendously over the course of the book. In the beginning of the book, she says, “ I have entered high school with the wrong hair, the wrong clothes, the wrong attitude. And I don’t have anyone to sit with. I am an outcast” (Anderson, 4). At the start, Melinda had lost all of her friends after she busted a party last summer, but nobody knows that a senior boy at the party raped her.

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754 Words | 4 Pages

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

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644 Words | 3 Pages

" Speak also states on page 161 " I am a deer in headlights of a tractor, is he going to hurt me again? He couldn't in school... why am I so afraid. " These examples from the text show all the problems Melinda had, for instance what Andy did to her,

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471 Words | 2 Pages

Many students in this novel are punished for speaking out. The, the consequences of not speaking are met with the repercussions of speaking out. This novel is about speaking and, how speaking can be is harmful. Speak highlights the stigma and consequences of speaking out, demonstrated by Melinda’s story, the students, and the staff of Merryweather High School.

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537 Words | 3 Pages

Those listed were the main connections I saw with Melinda. While reading the novel Speak written by Laurie Halse Anderson, I can point out many similarities between the book and the four articles we read. Sexual assault stereotypes, sexual violence and rape statistics, and mental illness (PTSD) information. From reading my essay, I hope you can now say that there are a lot of similarities in the facts and statistical information between the articles and the novel

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620 Words | 3 Pages

On page 114 in “Speak” Melinda’s mother says “That's the point, she won't say anything! I can't get a word out of her she's mute.” not saying anything is just one of the ways a victim could be affected. By not saying anything they think it will help to keep their thoughts inside.

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1903 Words | 8 Pages

Mrs. Sordino’s inability to show compassion towards Melinda and how she may be feeling greatly diminishes their relationship. These interactions cause a chain reaction of broken relationships throughout the book. For Melinda, this causes distrust and unwillingness to open up. After this, every time Mrs. Sordino attempts to ask Melinda about her life, Melinda does not respond. This is most likely caused by these types of interactions throughout the book.

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403 Words | 2 Pages

Children in the age range thirteen to fifteen are often transitioning through a critical time of their lives. They frequently look to others as a cicerone on how they themselves should act. In the novel, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda Sordino calls the cops on an end-of-summer party at which she was raped. The novel depicts Melinda’s excursion as to how she copes with the heart-wrenching events that have affected her momentously as well as creating “[a] frightening and sobering look at the cruelty and viciousness that pervade much of contemporary high school life.” (Kirkus Reviews, Pointer Review).

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755 Words | 4 Pages

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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805 Words | 4 Pages

After Melinda admits to herself that she was raped, Melinda starts to realize that

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1218 Words | 5 Pages

Speak Journal Response This journal is in response to the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. As a coming-of-age contemporary novel, Speak discusses many sensitive issues that are still prominent even today. In this story, we explore the life of Melinda Sordino, a fourteen-year-old girl who is beginning high school right after experiencing an utterly traumatic event: rape. Melinda is left friendless, with no one to help and support her after what happened.

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736 Words | 3 Pages

Isolation is when one is set apart from others and is virtually alone. In Laurie Anderson’s Speak, the protagonist, Melinda, isolates herself and is further isolated from others. Isolation can be seen through three symbols: lips, mirrors and a closet. Melinda thinks no one cares about what she has to say, resulting in silence. After the incident in the summer, Melinda cannot bare to look at herself.

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261 Words | 2 Pages

Because of her experiences Melinda pushed people away without noticing it. “ Heather... You are the most depressed person I've ever met, and excuse

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646 Words | 3 Pages

The cause of Melinda’s dreary mood obviously comes from IT’s abuse. Andy Evans constantly harassing Melinda in the hallways reminds her of the horrid rape and keeps the image in her mind. This is why Melinda cannot wake up from her nightmare and is emotionally unstable. To sum up, Melinda’s dismal mood is greatly portrayed through the metaphors of

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1197 Words | 5 Pages

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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