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Essay On Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

754 Words4 Pages

44 percent of rapes are people who are under 18, what if you were in the 44 percent? That's what the book “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson depicts. In this book a girl named Melinda was drunk and got raped at a back to school party. And all she can do is think to call the police for help, but she doesn't realize that she is about to get almost everyone in there school busted for drinking. Everyone finds out she called the police at the party and everyone neglects and hates her for getting them in trouble. But no one knows why she called the police because she keeps the rape secret from everyone. She is constantly getting ignored and she is constantly scared and nervous so she needs to find a place to hide and keep all of her problems locked …show more content…

She can't discuss what happened at the party in the first quarter because, she isn’t accepting what happened at the party. Melinda uses the closet to hide away from her fears: “The closet is abandoned--it has no purpose, no name. It is the perfect place for me.” (pg. 26). Melinda is saying that this “no purpose” closet with “no name” depicts herself because, similar to the closet she is alone and ignored. Melinda is not telling people about her emotions, instead she is hiding in a closet away from her fears and …show more content…

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. So she yells and fights back when Andy tries to abuse her: “No. A sound explodes out of me. NNNOOO!!!” (pg 194). This shows that Melinda is finally speaking this shows that her closet is not safe from what happened to her and that she can never hide from her trauma. And she needs to begin to speak and solve the

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