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Comprehensive analysis of 'Speak' by Laurie Anderson
Comprehensive analysis of 'Speak' by Laurie Anderson
Comprehensive analysis of 'Speak' by Laurie Anderson
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In Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel, Speak, Melinda is a dynamic character whose behaviors, thoughts, and words change and reflect the theme of the novel, not to keep ones emotions bottled up. First, Melinda acts in a shy and quiet manner because she had got her friends into trouble when she called the cops at the party. However when Melinda begins to make her own choicesfor herself and not let her emotions get to her, she realizes she will not let other people make her own descions. This is evident when Anderson writes “I mean no I won`t help you” (Anderson 179). This shows how Melinda will not be walked on by her peers.
Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a story about Melinda Sordino. Melinda was an incoming freshman at Merryweather High, and was entering ninth grade with no friends. During the first school assembly, the new girl in town, Heather, introduced herself to Melinda, sparking somewhat of a friendship. Melinda also came across her ex-best friend, Rachel. Rachel had mouthed the words “I hate you” to Melinda, even though all she wanted to do was to tell Rachel what really happened at the infamous summer party.
Speak Summary In “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda is starting high school and has not many friends. She feels like she doesn’t fit in at Merryweather High School. She just lost her best friend and made a new friend as well. The author wants Melinda to speak about her problems with her teachers, her parents, or anyone who is willing to help her.
Heather had moved from Ohio and did not know anything about Melinda like her calling the cops, and nobody talking to her anymore. Heather was not Melinda’s true friend in the end all she did was use Melinda toward the end of their friendship. The first example of Heather not being a true friend is when she told Melinda she is no longer he friend because of her depression, friends are supposed to help fight depression not help depression fight you. “When you get through this life sucks phase, I’m sure lots of people will want to be
Furthermore, Melinda had admitted that she could “[feel] the wind blow and hear the mockingbird whistling on the way back to her nest. But when [she tries] to carve it, it looks like a dead tree, toothpicks, a child’s drawing. [She cannot] bring it to life” (78). She wistfully imagines confessing her distress, but she remains reluctant and retreats from transitioning into speaking again. There are many moments within the novel where Anderson uses symbolism to illustrate Melinda's desire to refurbish her life as this one, but it is hard for Melinda to do so without the choice of acknowledging what happened.
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is a book about a girl named Melinda Sordino. In the beginning of this book the audience meets Melinda as she is the main character and she describes her first day of high school starting with an assembly. Throughout the book you read about her life but she goes back to the past recalling of something that happened at the end of the summer; in a couple of instances she comes across someone that she refers to as “IT”. When reading you don't know who this “IT” is but it is developed over the story by her having flashbacks to that night or dropping a hint of what happened. During a seminar at the beginning of the book Melinda meets someone named Heather who is new and becomes her friend but ultimately leaves her
An important character in the book Speak, a bildungsroman novel, by Laurie Halse Anderson is Melinda Sordino. At an end of summer party Melinda calls the cops, nobody will talk to her, yet alone listen to why she did. The incident was that she was raped by a senior still at her school, he is still a threat to her and soon her friend, which forces her to speak. Melinda is important because of her story and what she has been through. Melinda learns the importance of having good friends, how to speak up and how to accept help from others.
The book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, is about an outcast girl named Melinda, someone that slowly got destroyed by a big event that happened at the end of summer party. This event leads to depression, anger, sadness, and most importantly Lack of communication with the art I did for this are things like parents not explaining things to each other or random lines all over the place when people are talking, this relates because when Melinda spoke nobody believed her or even heard her. The theme is that sometimes the lack of communication can lead to bigger problems. Now talking about the art on the paper, the main thing is a tree because I feel like Mr. Freeman saved her, making Melinda see that art is so much more. When he talks about when
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).
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.
She insists that she really wants to tell her secret, but to “hand over the guilt and mistake and anger to someone else” won’t help her get rid of the horrible memory. Instead, she kept her tragic experience to herself and hid in the closet. What propelled Melinda’s confession was when she refused to help heather with prom. That led to her overcoming her fear and confess to Rachelle about what really happened the night of the party. As previously seen the reader can say that Melinda put in practice the quote, “Bad human communication leaves us less room to grow.”
Speak Essay: Figurative language has a tremendous influence on literature because it enlivens the words and makes them jump off the page. This allows the reader to visualize the scene in a unique, explicit way. Laurie Anderson’s Speak demonstrates an abundant use of figurative language. Figurative language appears in various forms; this includes simile, metaphor, personification, symbol, hyperbole and more.
The main setting of “Speak” is Merryweather High School in Syracuse, New York. Other settings include Melinda 's room. She spends most of her time there if she 's not in school. While she is in school, she finds a storage closet no one goes into and creates her year long art project in there. The author chose a high school for the setting to show how outcasted students can be over a rumor and how painful it can be for them.
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.
he novel Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, focuses on the story of a high school freshman, Melinda Sordino, who is struggling to overcome a sexual assault that happened during a party over the summer. Melinda then called the cops, subsequently shutting down the party. Her actions result in her friends abandoning her and the rest of the school viewing her negatively, as no one else knows the real reason as to why she called the police. Due to the trauma she experienced, she stops speaking and becomes maladjusted and deeply depressed. She has no one to talk to about what happened at the party, causing her to lose all motivation for her classes, except for art.
