Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson Character Analysis

The Cruelties of Silence

Have you ever seen someone sitting alone in the school cafeteria during lunch, and wonder why that person was alone? Were they waiting for their friends? Were they new? Were they studying? None of these explanations were why Melinda, the main character of the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson was sitting alone during lunch. A high school freshman of Merryweather High, Melinda Sordino, was raped at an end-of-the-summer party. Due to accidently busting the party, she spent most of the school year being avoided by her peers. Unable to verbalize what happened, she nearly stops talking all together, falling into a deep depression. The rape of Melinda by Andy Evans

As seen throughout the novel, Melinda presented major symptoms of self-destruction to the audience. First of all, one sign that Melinda has shown on various occasions are acts of physical harm. The most serious example of this has been in “Rent Round” on page 87 when Melinda was in her closet after a rough day. “I open up a paperclip and scratch it across the inside of my left wrist… I draw little windowcracks of blood, etching line after line until it stops hurting.” At this point in the novel, we make an assumption that this is an attempted suicide, which greatly relates with the definition of self-destructive behavior: “any type of behavior that is harmful or potentially harmful to the person that engages in this type of behavior”, according to Wikipedia. This event and quote are great evidence of how the rape impacted Melinda mentally. Without speaking, this is Melinda’s cry for

After all, this behavior has caused her much more agony. After her trauma, Melinda lost her ability to easily communicate with her peers. At first, Melinda had difficulty having short conversations with people, but at her worst state she almost entirely shut down and couldn’t talk to anyone. A quote to prove this statement is in “Clash of the Titans”. When Melinda and her parents were talking to the principal in his office, on page 114, “They want me to 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.” This demonstrates that Melinda can’t even talk to her own family about what happened to her. If she can’t talk to her own family, who she’s known her entire life, you know that she’s in an awful state, and needs immediate attention. This quote shows us that she has shut down, not willing to tell anyone. Since no one was aware of what actually happened to Melinda the night of the party, everyone showed hatred to her for calling the cops at the party. Without a doubt, Melinda’s old friends were very angry at her. A situation that demonstrates their anger was on the first day of school when Melinda introduced us to them, “Rachel