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Speak Cather Character Analysis

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The novel, Speak, is about a girl named Melinda, who had an unfortunate incident befall her the summer leading into high school. Now, everyone dislikes her and Melinda spends the majority of the year hiding in the shadows trying to find a way to speak. Melinda befriends Heather, a new girl from Ohio. For a sizeable part of the book, Melinda and Heather linger with each other and therefore, the contrast between the two characters is unquestionably prominent. Heather has a bubbly, determined, and egocentric personality. These three traits that Heather displayed have an obvious relationship with each other. Initially, Heather exhibited signs of vivaciousness. Preceding the rally, Heather manifested her passion for pep rallies. “This is so exciting - a pep rally!! I made extra pompoms.” (Anderson 27) Despite pep rallies being interesting, Heather was overly enthusiastic, even taking the initiative to make more pom-poms. Even Melinda said that Heather’s enthusiasm …show more content…

Heather, being so animated, constantly perplexes Melinda as to why she is not like Heather. Additionally, it is easier for the author to describe to the character what Melinda’s personality before. Instead of having Melinda explain what she was like before which would be unusual, readers can deduce that Melinda’s previous personality by the comparisons Melinda makes to Heather’s habits. Heather’s overpowering need to succeed leads to her having a selfish demeanor. And considering Heather is so selfish, she left Melinda for “The Marthas” leaving Melinda all by herself where she realized that Heather was never truly her friend and refused to help Heather after. Clearly, like all people, there are a few traits we can learn from Heather but also a few characteristics that are better off to be limited to only

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