The Importance Of Friendship In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the readers are introduced to Melinda Sordino, a character who goes through her tainted freshman year as a quiet girl who wishes of acceptance by her fellow peers. But she holds a dark secret from the night of Kyle Rodgers party that is her reality. In everyone 's else 's perspective there was no seemingly thinkable reason for her to have called the police and for that everyone made her the Outcast. The author skillfully introduces a high school experience of an outcast, multiple social cliques represented by fake and real friends through one single character that embodies the very essence of the true meaning and impact of friendships. Throughout the story, this single character Melinda makes and reunites with friends that help her speak and some that make her search for help unfulfilled. Consequently, in the end there are some like Heather who failed as a friend while others like Mr. Freeman who proved themselves supportive and trustworthy showing the important role of friendship in Melinda 's life. To begin, in the novel there was one individual who blatantly fails Melida as a friend. This individual was Heather, a girl who had moved from Ohio and struck up a friendship with Melinda on the first day of school. This "friendship", wasn 't a

On the contrary, Melinda was able to become friends with a individual that proved himself trustworthy and supportive, Mr. Freeman, the art class teacher. He was the only person to see Melinda 's reality which was shown through her artwork. Melinda had put a Barbie head with a mouth taped up on her turkey bone project, and Mr.Freeman was able to automatically tell,"This has a meaning. Pain"(Anderson 65). He offered Melinda his ear and in the end she ended up confiding in him first because he was the only one that asked. Mr. Freeman saw the pain that no one else did and like a good friend encouraged Melinda at last tell her heart wrenching story and finally