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The Characters In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

710 Words3 Pages

Speak “The silence was killing me. And that's all there ever was. Silence. It was all I knew. Keep quiet. Pretend nothing had happened, that nothing was wrong. And look how well that was turning out.” (J. Lynn, Wait for You). In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character, Melinda, grows as a person against great adversity. Speak is a very powerful novel with relatable characters. Speak shows us another side of a story we usually don't get see. Melinda is entering her first year of high school, she is considered an outcast. This is because everyone believes she called the police on a party in the summer, little do they know she was sexually assaulted by a fellow classmate Andy Evans . This novels message is that nothing is …show more content…

Near the end of the book, Melinda started standing up for herself and developing a new confidence. “I’m tough enough to play and strong enough to win.”(pg 170) For most of the book, Melinda always thought she was doing everything wrong “ I feel bad that I didn’t.” (pg 72) was a common theme for her. Melinda always did whatever people told her to do especially Heather “‘ I won’t help you.”’ (pg 179) Melinda finally said no to Heather, after she said no to Heather, she started to gain all the confidence and self-worth back that Andy took away. In the last part of the novel, you see the main character face her biggest fear, standing up to Andy which is the last piece of the puzzle for her to become a whole person again. Throughout the novel Speak we see Melinda grow even though everything seems to be going wrong. When we first see Melinda she is lonely and is hated by everyone. Even with everything going against her she finds a new love for art, she finds new friends and new confidence that she didn’t have before. We see how being sexually assaulted then not telling anyone affects Melinda's life. The book shows us how being assaulted can completely change a person’s life and personality. Reading Speak shows you that even if you are suffering you can always change your life. It is always possible to change your life for the better. There is always a way out of a bad

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Melinda`s behavior reflcets the theme because she has come to the realization that keeping her feelings bottled up will not

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Melinda Sordino Melinda Sordino is the main character in Laurie Halse Anderson’s award-winning book, Speak. Speak is about a young teenager who experienced a great trauma. Melinda Sordino was raped at a high school party before the start of her freshman year. She struggles with letting her secret be known. Melinda is very independent, lonely, and depressed.

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The book Speak is a book written by Laurie Halse Anderson, it is about a young girl named Melinda Sordino and is about a very serious and all too common issue: rape and depression. Rape is a serious problem, it can completely destroy a person, making them never the same again. Depression is always an uphill battle and is even worse when your friends turn their back on you and your family does not notice something is seriously wrong with you. Melinda was a young girl enjoying life until an older boy named Andy Evans took advantage of his size and raped her.

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Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is a story of a girl that wants to make it through her first year of high school safely. The main character, Melinda, is trying to cope with what happened to her last year at a party. She was sextualy assulted by a guy that is now at the same school as her. The police were called by her and then she lost all her friends because of it. This story is how she tried to make it through her first year without too much pain.

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On a seemingly emotional high after attending a high school party as a rising freshman, Melinda’s world got turned upside down when she was taken advantage of by a popular senior jock. Along with the pain of the trauma itself, Melinda was reminded of her terrible ordeal each time she came in contact with Andy: “I want to throw up and I can smell him and I run and he remembers and he knows. He whispers in my ear” (Anderson 86). When Andy encroached on her sanctuary in the art room and destroyed her work, Melinda shut down and locked herself in her closet, where she “stuffed [her] mouth with old fabric and screamed until there were no sounds left under [her] skin” (Anderson 162). While interactions with others could incite her anxiety and feelings of depression, continued encounters with her rapist further aggravated Melinda.

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and she didn’t talk to anyone. Melinda has been trying to overcome her trauma since the start of her freshman year but she hasn't been able to find the courage to overcome it until the end of the year. The book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is about a girl named Melinda that had a traumatic experience at a party during the summer because of this Melinda has a hard time making friends going into the 9th grade. Melinda is also conflicted about her individuality and questions if she can trust anyone with being herself.

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Have you ever needed somebody to help you achieve your desires? .In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character has a hard time speaking. Melinda stated the mood in the novel by saying “…me with an S maybe, S for silent, for stupid, for scared, S for silly, for shame”(Anderson 101).Throughout the school year Melinda relies on her attacker, friends, and a trusted teacher to speak up.

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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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She lost her identity and became cynical of other people. After her old friends ditched her, she lost a major part of herself. Then, although she did not consider Heather a “true friend”, she was desperate to keep her when Heather wanted to cut the ties of friendship. Going through high school is hard enough, but especially difficult when teenagers have no one there to go through it with. Also, Melinda’s appearance changes drastically over the summer.

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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.

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In contrast, when Melinda decided to tell Rachel about Andy raping her, it is a turning point in her life. “Rachel writes in a heavy hand. WHO DID IT??? I turn the page. Andy Evans” (184).

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Melinda was able to speak at the end of the novel Speak by Laurie Hals Anderson, because she ultimately realized that she had the vital support surrounding her. At the beginning of the novel, Melinda has lost all of her friends due to a misunderstanding during the summer, however as the book moves along she establishes valuable connections with new and old people. Ivy and Melinda had gone through a troublesome time in their friendship, but by renewing the connection they had the past year, Melinda then had someone she knew she could trust. Ivy never bullied Melinda, but she grew apart from Melinda when Rachel and Nicole did, when Melinda sees Ivy and other “people [she] used to think were [her] friends, they look away” (9), however towards the end of the year Melinda starts to open up to Ivy about what happened over the summer by making her list of “Guys to Stay Away From” on the bathroom wall (175). Throughout the year it is present that Melinda and Ivy’s friendship evolves and Melinda is then able to trust Ivy with the truth.

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The novel Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is about a girl named Melinda, who shows signs of depression throughout the story. She has no friends and is hated by people she doesn’t even know. This is because she called the cops at a party, where she was raped. Anderson includes literary elements to show how Melinda is depressed. Throughout the novel, she uses many different literary elements to show Melinda’s conflict.

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754 Words | 4 Pages

Melinda, the protagonist in Speak, is a girl who strongly believes that her silence is the ticket to freedom. She lies to herself about being okay with not speaking up, when deep down inside she knows that it is hurting her inside and out. Throughout the novel, it can be observed that her silence begins to have a major effect on her life. It is represented through a variety of scenarios; from gradual damage to her relationships, to her plummeting grades.

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Melinda, in a lot of ways, starts out like that it the book. She becomes a shell of herself from before the party happened and because no one else was there, she is lonely and doesn't have anybody to go to and to make matters even worse, she’s covered by the reputation that she has formed. In the book, Laurie Halse Anderson uses symbolism to convey exactly what Melinda can't say. In the beginning of the book, Melinda starts high school carrying her emotional wounds with her after something happens mysterious to her at a party during the summer.

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