The novel “Speak” focuses on communication and depression. The central idea (hence the title speak) is to always speak your mind and the truth. When you have the power to speak you have the power to obliterate any monster. In the novel Melinda’s life spirals around the lack of communication. Melinda expresses various forms of communication through letters left on school lockers, sticky notes to her parents and notebooks passed between students. Melinda didn’t speak up when she was raped, so people made all sorts of assumptions about her and no one accepted her. When Melinda had the courage to confess her secret about what happened to her the night of the party she still didn’t speak. Alternately, Melinda passed notes to Rachel explaining everything. Even after the whole school found about Andy Evans, Melinda still has not spoken. At the end of the novel Melinda proceeds to tell her teacher Mr. Freeman the entire story. …show more content…
Melinda is presented as an intelligent, witty and strong girl. Melinda’s depression is internal. Because of this nobody truly understands what Melinda is going through. Melinda has a self hatred for herself. She is lonely and isolated from everyone else. She states “Hawthorne wanted snow to symbolize cold, that's what I think. Cold and silence. Nothing quieter than snow. The sky screams to deliver it, a hundred banshees flying on the edge of the blizzard. But once the snow covers the ground, it hushes as still as my heart.” This quote exemplifies Melinda’s mood swings. She compares it to the seasons. She claims during the winter she is as quiet as the snow. This is where she is at her most detached and depressed. Melinda also has that feeling of cutting herself and running away. She is incapable of taking action because she doesn’t know how to run, only to hide. Hide from the memories, the emotional and physical pain. When Melinda cuts herself with the paperclip she calls the scratches on her wrists