Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

Change by Rape
Only 7% of the perpetrators of sexual assault are not related to the victim based off of reported cases that RAINN, a National Sexual Assault Hotline, recorded. The book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, shows where this statistic is true. Following the protagonist, Melinda Sordino, during her freshman year after having been raped in the summer, the book highlights external factors that affect her identity. She struggles to cover up what happened while she meets new people who change her identity in many ways, sometimes helping and other times changing it for the worse. The main people who externally affect her identity are her parents; her peers; and her rapist, Andy Evans. While interacting with them, Melinda’s parents are

The second way that her parents shape her identity is through forcing her to stay secluded from other people and activities that used to be normal for her through having her stay in the house without anyone else there. She tells readers of her conversation with her parents: “My parents declare that I am too old to go trick-or-treating. I’m thrilled. This way I don’t have to admit that no one invited me to go with them” (39). It is obvious that Melinda does not want to go, but based off of how much she is telling readers, she is affected by not being able to go. Because she is not outside seeing other people, part of her identity will be someone who does not want to hang out with friends or have a good time. This is different compared to if she were to go alone because at school it is obvious to everyone that she does not have anyone to hang out with but, by going, it would have seemed as if she wanted to become friends with someone else. It makes her seem like more of a loner or outsider who does not feel the need to interact with other people more than she has to. Finally, her parents try to force her to try and get her grades up, causing for her to have the identity of

The first way that they do so is through making her feel bad about calling the police at a party where she was raped. While at a school assembly that she did not particularly want to go to, someone recognizes her and connects her name with that of the one whispered around because of the party. Melinda tells readers through metaphors what it is like to be in her position: “A block of ice freezes our section of the bleachers. Heads snap in my direction with the sound of a hundred paparazzi cameras. I can’t feel my fingers. I shake my head” (28). Through looking at Melinda, drawing attention to her, the students are making her feel less and less wanted, weighing down her greatly. They are hanging onto when she called the police after being raped at the summer party, not knowing the real reason why she called them. She is part of the reason why they are acting like this, but because they do not forgive her at all, it causes for her to be an outcast, known as the person who wants to follow the rules and break up a party that was not appropriate for kids to be in. In doing both of these, the students make Melinda’s reputation, a part of her identity, bad to those who want to have fun. The next way that other students shape Melinda’s identity is through giving her hope and then taking it away when she did not realize that she had any. When Melinda finds out that Heather decided to go her own way,