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The Transformation Of Melinda In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

478 Words2 Pages

In the book, “speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character, Melinda, faces small differences in how she reacts around other people and how she decides to interact with others. In some ways, Melinda only changed internally and/or mentally. She chose to be more open at the end than in the beginning because of having come to terms with what had happened to her, and because of her reminding herself it wasn’t her fault. At the beginning of “speak”, main character Melinda is seen as very shy and quiet; an introverted person who doesn’t really care about school and her grades. After reading what she was like the year before,Melinda, who used to be a teenager with friends who cared about her and vice versa, changed drastically. After reading up until the first and second marking period, we can begin to realize what Melinda did to cause her schoolmates to resent her. The summer before the school year began, Melinda was invited to a party which her friends would attend as well. During the party, a traumatic event occurs, which isn’t …show more content…

This could be because of the lack of character development she has. However Melinda matured the way she thinks, not much physically. From the beginning of the book to the end, you can tell that Melinda does come out of her shell, and begins to interact with the people around her more. At pages 109-110, Melinda begins to communicate with David Petrakis using a notebook. They write stuff down and draw things back and forth until the bell rings. Even if they didn’t physically talk at this moment, this was a big deal to her, also because she thought David might have had a crush on her. In other parts of the book, like in page 145-146, Melinda becomes more social with Ivy, and works up the courage to share some of her Life Savers candy. On page 164-165, she begins to think about the night of the party. She begins to question what even happened and what had happened to

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There are specific people who helped her mature in a certain way. She slowly opens up over the course of the year with support from different people. There are several people in this novel who help Melinda find her “voice”. Mr. Freeman, for example, was an important part of Melinda’s growth. He is Melinda’s art teacher who came off as weird at first

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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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For instance, she tells rachel about what happened at the party. Once Melinda learns that Andy and Rachel are attending prom together, she needed to tell Rachel about what Andy did. “I was stupid and drunk and I didn’t know what was happening and then he hurt-I scribbled that out-raped me” (183). Melinda finally telling someone about what happened is a perfect example of her recovery. At the beginning of the novel, she could not even talk to her friends.

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Ever since what happened to her, she has been keeping a secret that she struggles to let out. Because she called the police after the tragedy of what happened to her (need to find a word), the people at the party, including her friends, functionally spurned her. The school year begins and Melinda only makes one friend, Heather, a new student (change up) to be favored by the studetns aat MerryWeather high school. However (change), Melinda is not engaged in the idea and instead spends her time in the janitor’s closet in which she found to be unused )at school + change up a bit).Around the school, Melonda sees “IT”, also kniwn as Andy

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Heather pointing this out is another opportunity for Melinda to explain herself and speak up about why she acts that way, and is another opportunity that she turns down. When Melinda stays silent and gives up this chance, she allows Heather to leave, despite not wanting her to leave. Another time Melinda avoids conflict is after Melinda falls asleep in the broom closet and goes to the basketball game, David invites Melinda to a party after school, when she refuses, thinking to herself, “Nope. I don’t do parties. No thanks.

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At the end of the novel, Melinda was almost a different person from the one the reader saw at the beginning of the story. On the last day of school, Melinda describes her tree, “My tree is definitely breathing; little shallow breaths like it just showed up through the ground this morning. This one is not perfectly symmetrical. The bark is rough, he said. I try to make it look as if initials had been carved into it a long time ago.

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687 Words | 3 Pages

Due to her inability to tell anyone what happened she loses the ability to speak and she starts distancing herself from her family and friends. Throughout the book, there are symbolic items that help us know how Melinda is feeling and they also represent the stages Melinda went through

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847 Words | 4 Pages

But in the end, when people started to find out what really happened they started to apologize to Melinda and had more sympathy for her. On the last day of school, seniors were saying goodbye to teachers and one of them said, “‘Way to go. I hope you’re OK.’ With hours left in the school year, I have suddenly become popular.” (Anderson 197).

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Eventually she drops Melinda as a friend and said that she was too depressed and needed help. This Melinda even more depressed and feel more alone. When prom came around Heather went to Melinda’s house and begged her to help with prom preparations. Heather offered to help redo Melinda’s room. Melinda finally stood up for what she believed and said no to Heather.

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755 Words | 4 Pages

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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924 Words | 4 Pages

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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921 Words | 4 Pages

It also shows that she knows that she has mentally change greatly in just two months. As Melinda goes through the school year, she starts to realize that she was raped and that she needed to tell someone. The first person she tells Rachel, she tells because at the time Rachel was dating Andy and Melinda did not want her to be hurt by Andy. That right there shows that she had grown a lot since it had happen she had put someone else before her own comfort to protect them. She had finally spoken and that was the beginning of her healing process, she’s becoming healed and will be able to actually focus on her grades and things that make her

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1448 Words | 6 Pages

We know that all her ex-friends and a bunch of other kids are really mad at her. She also hints that something awful has happened to her, and she wants to tell somebody about it but can't. We find out that people are mad at Melinda because they hold her responsible for an end-of-summer party being busted. Melinda is physically and verbally assaulted at school on a semi-regular basis, prompting her to keep to herself more and more. We also learn that a bad thing happened to her at the party, and that's why she called the police.

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1316 Words | 6 Pages

She is mentally struggling, and they cannot even tell because of how much they are not home. They do not even hear her out or ask why her grades are so low. They just assume that she is being lazy and not doing her work. This is an example of miscommunication because Melinda feels trapped inside her own mind, and her parents are expecting too much from her with the mental state that she is in at this time. In the play as well as the novel, the parents and the teenager do not communicate well with each other, and this causes the teenagers to feel alone, frustrated, and

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1197 Words | 5 Pages

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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