Speak A Long Year With No Friends Analysis

Speak a Long Year with No Friends Laurie Halse Anderson wrote the novel Speak in 1999. The novel Speak was about a girl, named Melinda, who went to a party over the summer and she ended up calling the cops for a reason no one knew about. Once she went to school, she had no friends there, because everyone was mad that she had called the cops. In the novel, Speak, Melinda went a long time without telling her secret, and as a result was very depressed. Once she finally spoke up, her life started to get a lot better because she was finally able to begin the healing process. Melinda didn’t get through all of the stuff that had happened to her during that year by herself, including the summer and during school. She was able to begin healing because

Freeman was one person that helped Melinda. Therefore, if Melinda ever needed someone to talk to, Mr. Freeman said that Melinda could always come and talk to him. “’Don’t mention it,’ he answers. ‘If you ever need to talk, you know where to find me’”(123). Before Heather came to Melinda’s school, Melinda had no one to talk to. Melinda and Heather were only friends for a little while, than Heather said that she didn’t want to be her friend anymore. So if it wasn’t for Mr. Freeman offering for her to talk to him, she wouldn’t have had anyone to talk to. In addition, Mr. Freeman knew that something was up with Melinda, because of the way she acted. He tried to help her and get her to speak up. He wanted her to tell him what had happened, but she never spoke up. “He hands me a box of tissues. ‘You’ve been through a lot, haven’t you’” (198)? Mr. Freeman told Melinda that if she ever needed a place to go that she could always come to his room. He offered that her, because she was scared at that time. Mr. Freeman also offered to talk to her if she ever needed someone to talk to, but she never took advantage of it. Also Mr. Freeman was the first adult Melinda told what happened over the summer too. Mr. Freeman wasn’t the only person that knew about her being raped. In addition, after she told most people about being raped she was a lot happier. She was a lot happier because she told most people that

Therefore, Melinda has no one that does anything for her, she has to do everything by herself. Ivy is one of the first people to actually do something for Melinda while she is going through a lot of pain. “’There’s a first time for everything. Go in the stall and hand over your shirt. You can’t wash it while you’re wearing it’”(173). However, if Melinda would never had gotten that help from Ivy, Melinda would never have gotten her shirt cleaned. She also wouldn’t of had anyone to talk to still and since Ivy was in the bathroom with her she was talking to her about Andy. Furthermore, Ivy started to talk about Andy and how he has a reputation. She was saying that if Melinda started to believe the rumors than she would end up getting it also. “She rinses the soap from the shirt. ‘He has such a reputation. He’s only after one thing, and if you believe the rumors, he’ll get it, no matter what.’ She wrings the water out of the shirt”(175). Not to mention, Ivy believes what Melinda said about Andy Evans and how he raped her over the summer unlike Rachel. Ivy told Melinda how Andy had a reputation and he would end up doing it to any other girl so it wasn’t her fault that it ended up happening to her. After all, Ivy helped Melinda out by washing out her shirt after she got paint on it. Also by telling her about Andy and not to be afraid of him because she wasn’t the only girl that it had happened