Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson Analysis

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,

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).

Anderson conveys her theme through the use of characterization such as they way the characters act, how they are portrayed, described, and how they interact (or not). From the beginning of the story to the end, many of the characters change quite a lot; especially Melinda. At the beginning of the story, Melinda says, “I am Outcast” (4). She truly feels that she does not belong when certain people cause her to feel this way. A specific example of this is when the narrator says that “when the pep rally ends, I am

The second cue I identified is the Mothers refusal to accept responsibility for her actions in the way she raised and treated Precious. It was clear in the counseling session that the Mother still blames Precious for her significant other not wanting her and eventually leaving her. The animosity, hatred, and disdain towards Precious was evident, when the Mother dropped the baby, and proceeded to attack Precious in the movie. (Daniels, 2009).

Steinbeck uses her character to create a visual of the difficulties that women had to face during the Great Depression. There are not evident loving relationship with women, the only ones that are mentioned belong in a house of prostitution, which corrupts the view of all women in the novel . Curley’s wife had no companions and was ignored. Curley treats her as a possession

this quote also supports that author showed her funny in her sentences. Esther didn’t change at beginning. In the middle of this story esther still not change. She is not racist and author still showed she funny in her sentences.

In the passage, taken from To Kill A Mockingbird, there is a mean and angry woman who lives down the street from two young children. Throughout the excerpt Mrs. Dubose was saying horrible things to two kids, Scout and Jem, and sometimes about about their father, Atticus. Harper Lee, the author of To Kill A Mockingbird, makes it clear to the readers that Mrs. Dubose is a disrespectful and critical woman. Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose does not like children and always has something critical to say about Scout and Jem, sometimes even Atticus.

Eudora Welty’s “Why I Live at the P.O.” is a story about the isolation of an individual through acts brought upon herself because of jealousy and sibling rivalry. The narrative is told through the older sister’s perspective and she is simply referred to as “Sister”. All of the characters in "Why I Live at the P.O." show a family that paints the reader a picture of comical dread: The narrator who leaves her family to live alone because of an argument that stems from sibling rivalry and a family that instead of showing comfort, love and togetherness further push her away by verbally and physically abusing (Mama slapping Sister after mentioning Cousin Flo(98)) her to the point where she had to move out. .

While sleepwalking she relives the night of Duncan’s murder, this time experiencing the fear of committing such a crime. She despises what she’s done, and hates herself for it every day. Her sleepwalking is a form of punishment for her sins. Lady Macbeth’s self-hatred becomes too difficult to live with it and she takes her own life. This is evident when Malcolm says, “By self and violent hands. /Took

She feels harmed, and alienated from others because of her inability to communicate and her traumatic experience with her rapist. Melinda can only relate to people with the same social division, such as her “friend” Heather, who she describes as a “wounded zebra”, for she is also an outcast.

The main character, Rachel Watson, had recently divorced her husband, Tom, and found herself missing the seemingly perfect life she had with him. Much like Melinda, Rachel feels worthless and disapproves of her appearance as well after the divorce. Her becoming an alcoholic over time was the main cause of the split. When she was under the influence, she could be extremely aggressive and violent and then black out; at least according to Tom. After she would sober up, he would tell her all the horrible things she said and did while she was drunk, like the time she attacked him with a golf club.

Desperate for friends, Melinda meets Heather. Heather craves popularity that Melinda can far from provide. Heather, like so many other abandons Melinda. Rachel her ex best friend became someone totally different, she even started dating Andy Evans. The boy who raped Melinda.

Laurie Halse Anderson is the author of “Speak.” The main character is Melinda, and she goes to Merryweather High School. She has no friends, and her old friends are mad at her. She is an outcast at the school. The author wants Melinda to speak about her problems to somebody.

To start with, the protagonist of the book, Melinda, is experiencing multiple difficult times in her life like her parents relationship is falling apart, recovering from the rape, and loneliness. Melinda has isolated herself from everyone else for so long, but also since everybody thinks she busted the party, they don’t want to have anything to do with her. As her peers at school bully her by blurting things out at her while she has a perfectly good reason why she called the police, she is afraid to stand up for herself. At the party, she was raped by Andy and didn’t know what to do after it happened, so she called the police in shock.

But with her mother dead and her father bitter, those feelings are foreign to Lily. Especially since she is trapped, tormenting herself over the fact that she was the one to shoot her mother. Despite it being a terrible accident. Sue Monk Kidd expresses to the readers how much death can trap someone in their own mind through Lily. You can see the full extent of her suffering when she sobbed the truth to August “It was my fault she died.