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Summary Of Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

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Speak was written in 1999 by Laurie Halse Anderson. The book is about Melinda, a freshman just starting high school. Melinda starts school off with no friends, she lost the ones she had over the summer. A traumatic event causes Melinda to shut everyone out, and not speak to anyone. Growing up usually takes time, but Melinda is rushed into maturity too soon and must help others do the same. Melinda is forced to grow quickly because she goes through a traumatic incident at a party. We learn about what happened that night in Third Marking Period, A Night to Remember. In middle school, Melinda was best friends with Rachel Bruin. Over the summer, Rachel was invited to a high school party, and took Melinda and a couple of other friends with her. …show more content…

She is starting to appear more content with herself even though she still hasn’t been able to tell anyone happened yet. “I’m on a roll, I’m rocking… The time time has come to arm-wrestle some demons.Too much sun after a Syracuse winter does strange things to your head, makes you feel strong, even if you aren’t (Anderson 180).” She is able to talk to Rachel during their study hall, they pass notes so they won’t get in trouble with the librarian. Rachel tells Melinda she isn’t mad at her about calling the cops to the party anymore, since it was such a long time ago. Now that Melinda has confirmation that Rachel isn’t mad anymore, she’s able to tell her why she actually called the cops. Rachel seems genuinely concerned and asks Melinda who raped her. When Melinda tells her that is was Andy Evans, who Rachel “loves”, Rachel yells at her calling her a liar and leaves Melinda alone in the library. Ivy spots Melinda at the end of the day and takes her to the bathroom to see the stall Melinda wrote on. Under where Melinda wrote Andy’s name of Guys to Stay Away From, there’s multiple girls agreeing with her, calling him a monster, and saying call the cops. On the day after prom, which Andy and Rachel went to together, we find out Rachel broke up with Andy because he wouldn’t stop groping her. Andy finds out that Melinda told Rachel that he raped her, he traps Melinda in a closet and attempts to hurt again. This time Melinda is able to shout no and breaks a mirror, holding a glass shard to Andy’s neck. The lacrosse team finds the two and Melinda finally gets help and everyone understands her

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In “Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character is Melinda the setting is in Merryweather high school her situation is she is alone. Some people are Ivy, Heather, Melinda, Rachel, Mr Freeman, Mr. Neck, and Hair women. She has no friends, she is an outcast. Melinda can talk to her parents, her teachers, and her friends but she doesn't for a long time but does later.

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Also, the closet her “safe place” she always used to hide what happened at the party from everyone else becomes a dangerous place. “It”, also known as Andy Evans the boy who rapes her at the party breaks into the closet and tries to sexually assault her again. Melinda realizes she can't let this happen again and therefore fights back with everything she has. She realizes that her closet is not safe anymore and that she can't hide from her trauma. And that she can't hide from this problem, and she needs to stand up and speak to the problem.

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A random students taps Melinda on the shoulder and asks if she’s the one who called the cops at the party hosted by Kyle Rodger. She nods people were making her feel guilty and horrible for what she did. The reason why she called the cops still remains a mystery but this explains why Melinda is isolated, and why Rachel stopped being friends with Melinda. whatever happened at the party traumatized her and haunts Melinda everyday.

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Speak is a terrifyingly realistic depiction of a rape victim’s struggle to find her voice and find herself once more after a vile “encounter” with the school’s golden boy. The story gives more information about the rape as it progresses, and eventually the reader learns the crime occurred at an end-of-the-summer party where Andy Evans, desired by most of the students in Merryweather High School, took advantage of an intoxicated and vulnerable Melinda. This lead to the protagonist contacting the police and shutting the party down, as well as causing Melinda to become alienated by her peers in result. Because of this awful ordeal, Melinda is seen as a snitch by her peers during the entirety of her freshman year. Melinda Sordino’s story shows

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Melinda begins the school year, separated as an outsider, by the mystery of assault, and by the way that her attacker goes to her school. A portion of her disengagement is deliberate; she purposefully pulls back from individuals. As said Melinda said in the story, ¨I figure I'll answer if [David] calls. In any case, on the off chance that he touches me I'll detonate, so a date is

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Consequently, Melinda was running away from Mr. Neck and stumbled across and old janitor’s closet, this helped in her transformation of who she is at the end of the novel. When Melinda ran into the closet, she felt safe. Moreover, the closet helped Melinda in many ways, such as a way to exit from drama. Her closet was her safe haven, she made many decisions that bettered her and people she cares about. For example, in the closet she conflicted about what to tell Rachel or to say nothing at all.

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When Rachel knows the truth and assures that Melinda is Andy 's victim she feels guilty of becoming disloyal to her friend. She has learnt a lesson about loyalty and friendship. Rachel feels that her anger towards Melinda was

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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).

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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.

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High school can be a scary place for many newcomers, upperclassmen with facial hair, people start driving, getting ready for the ultimate goal of college, some would call high school a awkward puberty acne faced hell. For melinda the first year of highschool was a whole new level of hell, not many can compare their experiences to her own. The novel speak goes hand in hand with the theme of transformation. Melinda Sordino, fourteen-year-old high school freshman, is drastically transformed when she's raped by popular senior Andy Evans or “IT” as melinda calls him. Melinda loses all her friends at a party just before she starts high school due to a grave misunderstanding.

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This where everything is resolved and the conflict ends. This event is when her relationship with her friend is revived. When her relationship with Rachel was revived she finally has someone to talk to. During the last few week of school, readers of Speak can see that her and Rachel now have more of a positive relationship and now she could talk to someone. ” ‘I didn't call the police to break up the party,’ I write, ‘I called...

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Speak Loneliness is very bad for you when you don’t talk to people. Loneliness is bad because you can’t talk to anybody about your problems. So, Melinda shuts out the world and becomes alone. Laurie Halse Anderson (author), the main plot for “Speak” is to speak up of what you did wrong. Loneliness is very bad when you can’t talk or speak to anybody because everyone is hating Melinda.

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After Melinda admits to herself that she was raped, Melinda starts to realize that

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Another element in this novel is Melinda’s inner conflict, man vs. self. What Melinda has been through greatly affected her everyday life. She struggles with depression, dislikes her appearance, and feels ashamed of herself for something that isn 't her fault: “I want to confess everything, hand over the guilt and mistake and anger to someone else...even if I dump the memory, it will stay with me, staining me” (Anderson 51). Andy Evans, the senior who raped her, made her feel worthless. This situation is much like the one in the novel The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.

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She learned to place trust in a few special friends including the art teacher, Mr. Freeman. At the end of the book, Melinda does several things to indicate that she has changed. First, she befriended Rachael and told her about the evil of Andy Evans. Second, she resisted another rape attempt from Andy. Finally, she gained popularity and new friends along the way.

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