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.
Melinda’s grades begin to drop and she starts to self harm by biting her lips until they bleed. When Heather notices that Melinda is depressed, she breaks her friendship with her instead of getting Melinda help. Her parents and guidance counselors notice her sudden decline, but think it’s just a ploy for attention. Months later, Melinda finally admits to herself that she was raped by Andy Evans. She starts going to class and reuniting with her friends.
Although she had been averse to the project given to her, she gradually began to like it. It was the only class she actually tried her best at, as an outlet to express herself, even if it was just the slightest bit. Over the next couple weeks, Melinda started to eat lunch with Heather and went on a couple trips to Heather’s home. The two formed an unhealthy friendship where Heather did about 90 percent of the talking, as she was much more social then Melinda. She wanted to be popular, however, which meant joining a one of the many cliques of high school.
Melinda’s character develops tremendously over the course of the book. In the beginning of the book, she says, “ I have entered high school with the wrong hair, the wrong clothes, the wrong attitude. And I don’t have anyone to sit with. I am an outcast” (Anderson, 4). At the start, Melinda had lost all of her friends after she busted a party last summer, but nobody knows that a senior boy at the party raped her.
Speak The book I am responding to is called Speak written by Laurie Halse Anderson. This book is about a teenage girl named Melinda Sordino, who begins her high school year with a big secret. Over the summer she and her friends went to a party where Melinda was raped, she called the police, causing her friends and everyone at the party to reject her. Later Melinda befriends a girl named Heather, a new student at her school.
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
" Speak also states on page 161 " I am a deer in headlights of a tractor, is he going to hurt me again? He couldn't in school... why am I so afraid. " These examples from the text show all the problems Melinda had, for instance what Andy did to her,
Throughout the story, the author foreshadows and hints that something tragic happens to Melinda at a party she attends in the summer. It is eventually revealed that Melinda is raped and that is why she called the police to the scene, and in the eyes of her friends crashes the party. However, her friends have no idea that she is raped and just believe she felt scared and called the police. In the first marking period, Melinda begins to open up to a teacher named Mr. Freeman. Mr. Freeman is Melinda’s art teacher.
The book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, is about an outcast girl named Melinda, someone that slowly got destroyed by a big event that happened at the end of summer party. This event leads to depression, anger, sadness, and most importantly Lack of communication with the art I did for this are things like parents not explaining things to each other or random lines all over the place when people are talking, this relates because when Melinda spoke nobody believed her or even heard her. The theme is that sometimes the lack of communication can lead to bigger problems. Now talking about the art on the paper, the main thing is a tree because I feel like Mr. Freeman saved her, making Melinda see that art is so much more. When he talks about when
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).
In “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda is a freshman that attends Merryweather high school. She’s trying to survive high school, but her teachers, ex-friends, and parents are making that almost impossible. But something that Melinda did at a party makes everyone hate her, and the author wants Melinda to speak. Throughout the book, Melinda has problems with her family.
Melinda wants to explain why she does not talk, why she is not doing well in school and tell them everything about the night at the party, but she does not. Being scared overpowers Melinda’s actions and the way she approaches others. For example, as Melinda is one-day skipping school she spots “IT” standing in the same parking lot as her. The action of being scared too over and she quickly run away, “bunny rabbit bolts, leaving fast tracks in the snow. Getaway, getaway, getaway.”
In Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda struggles with communication. Melinda is at a party, she is attacked and raped by a student who attends her school, Merryweather high. When it is time to head back to school after the summer, Melinda decides not to talk to anyone. She became completely mute. In the beginning of the book, Melinda is thinking about her attack when her " throat squeezes shut...
After Melinda admits to herself that she was raped, Melinda starts to realize that
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.