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

551 Words3 Pages

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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You're jealous. You're a twisted little freak and you're jealous that I'm popular and going to the prom and so you lie to me like this.” This conveys how even when Melinda spoke up about what happened at the party, Rachel betrayed her again. She betrayed Melinda with her trust, and with their friendship.

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Essay On Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

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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.

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Also it’s showing that everyone does not think of her the same way. Melinda is also not blend in with everyone because she is wearing different clothes. In the end of the book, Rachel starts talking to Melinda again after she finds out Andy Evans raped her. Another part in the beginning of the book Heather starts making friends with Melinda but when Heather starts using her, Melinda stands up to her. Heather is super nice to Melida and invites her to do things, but when she meets the Martha’s she slowly started to leave Melinda behind until she needed something.

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Summary Of Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

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And i'm not going to let it kill me. I can grow." Coming to terms with what happened to her allows her to finally accept that she is entering this new stage, and look forward to her future. My favorite characters were Melinda and Mr. Freeman because while she was going through a hard time and a tough experience Mr. Freeman was helping her through the process of growing. I like how the Art teacher (Mr.Freeman) connected to her and made her think deeply.

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A Comparison Of Life In Speak And A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

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She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood.” This showed her love for books, but also acknowledged her loneliness. In Speak, Melinda is traumatized from being taken advantage of and raped by an older boy named Andy Evans. She had called the police at the party they were at, and ever since then has been seen as an outcast.

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Speak By Laurie Halse Arizona

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Consequently, Melinda’s character is one which most teens relate to. Friendship is very important aspect of high school. In high school friendships start to change and so do people. People feel like they have to be cool and popular in high school and that's when everything starts to change for Melinda.

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Compare And Contrast Esperanza And The House On Mango Street

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This causes her to be unable to speak as normal and express herself only through self physical acts of hurting herself. However, through her pain, she begins to grow from a victim to a survivor and understands that the only way to go against evil is to speak out against it. Melinda in Speak is a high school freshman who is raped by Andy Evans who is a senior in high school. Due to him raping her she loses her ability to speak normally and say what she feels and how she feels. Melinda gains her confidence to speak in public freely again by the end of the story.

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Speak Mouth Motif: Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

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Melinda is alone and is battling her mental health. “Speak” is the story of how Melinda went from a disturbed, almost-mute girl, to finally finding her voice. Anderson uses the motif of a mouth throughout the novel to track Melindas personal growth throughout the year. At the start of her year Melinda sees most things as a waste and her depression is evident in the motifs. Like when Melinda runs into a teacher and talks about her reason for staying silent, “All that crap you hear on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie.

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Summary Of Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

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Speak was written in 1999 by Laurie Halse Anderson. The book is about Melinda, a freshman just starting high school. Melinda starts school off with no friends, she lost the ones she had over the summer. A traumatic event causes Melinda to shut everyone out, and not speak to anyone. Growing up usually takes time, but Melinda is rushed into maturity too soon and must help others do the same.

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Examples Of Character Development In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

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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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After Melinda admits to herself that she was raped, Melinda starts to realize that

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The Second Marking Period In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

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This chapter ends with David being allowed to record what goes on in class practically beating Mr. Neck, and Melinda calls David her hero. Melinda began to feel inspired by what David had done as his act of standing up to Mr. Neck reminded Melinda of her struggle of not being able to speak up about what happened to her. David showed her that speaking up can change things and that people will get what they deserve. Moreover, the chapter “Wishbone” shows that Melinda feels stuck or trapped in the same place. She has so much more to her than she lets on, but it’s all hidden inside because she can’t get herself to speak, it also reveals that she is in a lot of pain.

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Character Analysis: The Dirt Diary

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Hoping my apology is enough… She smiles. ‘I’m really sorry too.’ Relief floods through me. I throw my arms around her and hug her so tight that she actually lets out a little squeak,” (Page 222). When Rachel and Marisol, two long time best friends, get in a major fight, the only thing left to do is turn around and forgive one another - which is

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Essay On Symbolism In The Book Speak

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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Speak Journal Response 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.

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