Stereotypes In Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak

One out of every six women has been sexually assaulted either completed (14.8%) or attempted (2.8%) in her entire lifetime. Imagine of the those women was a 15 year old girl attending high school, who had a lot to offer, but was periodically silenced, while battling a mental illness in a fictional novel called Speak. The novel speak and the articles we read outside of class have a lot in common including sexual assault stereotypes, sexual violence statistics, and mental illness. Next, I will compare the character Melinda with the four articles. During the book speak, the main character Melinda can be described as a “perfect victim”. In the article titled “Perfect Victim Stereotypes” Luisa de Vogel states, “About 60 percent of reported sexual

During Melinda’s time at school, her grades drop significantly, she loses her friends, skips class, and in general stops caring about her education. In the article titled “PTSD” Christian Nordqvist states, “A woman is four times more likely to develop PTSD than men. Psychiatrists say this is probably because women run a higher risk of experiencing interpersonal violence” (21/23). Melinda fits into this statistic, she is a woman who was sexually assaulted (pg. 134-135.) She was four times more likely to. 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