How To Find The Voice In Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is a novel regarding Melinda Sordino, a 14 year old girl, who gets raped at the end of summer party. Melinda ends up calling the police, causing all of her friends to absolutely despise her. The story begins as Melinda arrives to her first day of 9th grade friendless, receiving dirty looks from everyone in the halls. Her once happy personality, entirely transforms into the opposite. “I cry to let everything out” Initially, Melinda befriends Heather, a new girl to the school, but later Heather realizes that Melinda being her friend ruins her social reputation. When Melinda loses her only friend, her depression grows and she begins skipping class. Mr. Freeman and David Petrakis are the only people who notice Melinda’s

Cleaning houses are a girl’s best friend. Or is it diamonds? In The Dirt Diary, by Anna Staniszewski, the main character, Rachel Lee, must clean houses with her mother in order to pay back the money that she stole until her mom finds out about her purchase. Rachel uses the money to buy a one way ticket to Florida, where her father ran off to, to bring him home. However, there’s only a slim chance of him actually coming home and a large chance of her mom finding out and forbidding her from going in the first place. When Rachel steals almost 300 dollars from her college fund to try and bring her family together, a major theme falls into place. People will do anything for a sliver of hope. Another, equally important theme found in this novel

Figurative language has a tremendous influence on literature because it enlivens the words and makes them jump off the page. This allows the reader to visualize the scene in a unique, explicit way. Laurie Anderson’s Speak demonstrates an abundant use of figurative language. Figurative language appears in various forms; this includes simile, metaphor, personification, symbol, hyperbole and more. Speak is a book written about the internal and external conflicts that protagonist, Melinda faces after being raped by Andy Evans (“IT”) and hated by her peers for ruining an end-of-summer party. This has traumatized Melinda and she is too afraid to speak up. Anderson enhances the big theme of sadness and depression through similes, metaphors,

“Mr. Freeman is ugly. Big old grasshopper body, like a stilt- walking circus guy. Nose like a credit card sunk between his eyes. But he smiles at us as we file into class”(10).

Helen Keller once said "...although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it." This quotation means that in life, you come to find yourself in many struggles, but there is always a sense of accomplishment over such problems. The reason I agree with this quote is because such triumph can only be accomplished after the fact of the occurrence of a struggle. The realistic fiction book, Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a perfect example of my interpretation of the quote. The author uses conflict, figurative language and characterization to show that this quote is true.

Painting is like keeping a diary on canvas. Art expresses ones feelings in ways words cannot. This is true for protagonist Melinda Sordino in the Laurie Halse Anderson novel about teenage rape, Speak. Anderson uses trees, mainly Melinda’s paintings and sculptures of trees, to chronicle Melinda’s growth in the novel. Instead of Melinda saying exactly how she felt all the time in the book, Anderson uses Melinda’s paintings to keep a diary of her emotions. With the trees, any reader can see Melinda transition from feeling lifeless with no hope and nothing keeping her going to accepting herself and having hope for the future.

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). Everyone hates her for calling the police at a party during the summer, but nobody knows

Art is way of expression. People can use actions and art or express themselves in ways other than speaking. In the book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, symbolism holds a big significance. The trees mentioned throughout the book symbolize Melinda’s changing “seasons” (her “growing” as a person). People, like trees, go through phases, they freeze in the winter, becoming nothing but lonely limbs without leaves covered with white slush. 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.

Children in the age range thirteen to fifteen are often transitioning through a critical time of their lives. They frequently look to others as a cicerone on how they themselves should act. In the novel, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda Sordino calls the cops on an end-of-summer party at which she was raped. The novel depicts Melinda’s excursion as to how she copes with the heart-wrenching events that have affected her momentously as well as creating “[a] frightening and sobering look at the cruelty and viciousness that pervade much of contemporary high school life.” (Kirkus Reviews, Pointer Review). The tragic event along with the rejection of her friends took a rather large toll on Melinda Sordino, in which, at one point, she stops

Everyone thinks that Melinda called the cops to get the people at the party in trouble, but that is not the case. The reason Melinda calls the cops is because Melinda was raped that night at the party. The rape is also the reason Melinda is so broken. To everyone else it seems as if Melinda wanted to cause problems and get people caught and in trouble but Melinda was truly raped and needed help. She had no intentions to get others in trouble even though that is how it seems in the novel. Everyone hates her now and thinks that she is a snitch. In reality she is hurt and was the night of the party so she called 911 for help. She never got help because people got mad at her so she ran away from the party as fast as she could. The 911 call and the rape are what is making her freshman year abysmal. Melinda appears to be a snitch, but in reality she is just afraid, broken, and scared to tell everyone what really happened. “I just want to sleep. A coma would be nice. Or amnesia. Anything, just to get rid of this, these thoughts, whispers in my mind. Did he rape my head, too?” (Anderson

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. Laurie Halse Anderson uses literary elements such as imagery, symbolism, and conflict, in order to reveal the protagonist’s emotional growth throughout the the novel.

Symbolism is the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character. In Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson uses literary devices to help the reader better understand Melinda’s personal changes and growth. Trees, lips, and coldness are all symbolically used to represent the changes of Melinda. Throughout the novel, trees play a big part in symbolizing Melinda.

This journal is in response to the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. As a coming-of-age contemporary novel, Speak discusses many sensitive issues that are still prominent even today. In this story, we explore the life of Melinda Sordino, a fourteen-year-old girl who is beginning high school right after experiencing an utterly traumatic event: rape. Melinda is left friendless, with no one to help and support her after what happened. She tries to navigate through her first year of high school, and it seems like the entire student body despises her; she feels more alone than ever. I will be analyzing and making connections to three specific elements in this novel: the search for one’s identity, Melinda’s inner conflict,

In Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda Sordino shows the most courage throughout the book. She displays acts of courage by showing her emotion in her artwork, talking to Rachel, and standing up to Andy. Melinda had a tragic experience in her life, but still had enough bravery to do all of those things. Lee Jampolsky one said "Take a moment and ask yourself what is really important. Have the wisdom and the courage to build your life around your

“Speak up, because the day you don’t speak up for the things that matter to you is the day your freedom truly ends”. Speak up when you have the change because if you don’t you will end up like me . I lied to my mom about doing something. I know, everybody as lied to their parents. But she’s a mom so when I lied to her she already knew I did it. It was no point of lying. Your mom is always smarter than you. That’s why she is the mom and you’re the kid. That’s why you don’t lie, that’s why you need to find the strength to speak up. For this reason that’s what Laura Halse Anderson’s novel, speak , focuses on the idea of finding the strength to speak up, this theme is demonstrated in how the main character was isolated by her peers, isolated herself, and finally , in the metaphor of the tree.