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

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In the book Speak by, Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character Melinda, tries to find her voice all throughout the book. Then she meets her art teacher Mr. Freeman. He helps her all throughout her school year express her and stand up for herself at the end of the year, when she has another problem with the same guy that hurt her before school started. Mr. Freeman helps Melinda express herself by getting better at speaking, expressing herself, and also standing up for herself. Melinda was finding her voice all throughout the school year. “I am Heather from Ohio,” she says,” I am new here. Are you?” (5). That was the first time they met. In the beginning she gotta “let go” friend to see if she could get her old friends back. Her “let go” friend turned out to be one of her good friends and missed her but eventually got over it. “ You mean we’re not friends anymore?” Melinda says (105). Melinda never noticed how good of a friend Heather was. Melinda finally had a friend she could trust. …show more content…

The last thing she does by expressing herself is how she stuck up for one of her formal friends and how she stuck up for herself at the end of the book. She stuck up against IT. She was trying to say no but Andy Evans wasn’t stopping for anything at all. On page 194, “I follow the sound, pushing off the wall, pushing Andy Evans off-balance, stumbling into the broken sink.” This shows that she is a strong person. And on page 195,”I hold it to Andy Evans 's neck. He freezes. I push just hard enough to raise one drop of blood.” This shows that Melinda can stand up for herself and isn’t afraid anymore. To summarize, in the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, she shows Melinda as a helpless person at the beginning of the school year. By the end Mr.Freeman helped her find her voice and one of her old friends. She also stands up for herself against the guy who hurts her. Her let go friend is someone who thought she could win her back but she could not be Melinda 's friend after what

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