Essay On Stereotyping In Anderson's Speak

Everyone has hardships that they come across, but what really matters is the way they overcome them. In the book “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character Melinda Sordino does not try to face her hardships, she wants her problems to just disappear, but what makes her different is that she learns that saying nothing will just make her problems worse. The author characterized Melinda as very brave, although it took time for her to accept her problems. Melinda tries to admit what happened to her, deal with the bullies in her school, and tries to help her ex-best friend, Rachel to see with whom she is dealing with.

Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak is a fictional novel set in Syracuse, New York at Merryweather High School. The main characters consist of two teenagers: Melinda Sordino, the protagonist, and Andy Evans, the antagonist. The conflict is caused by Andy, who raped Melinda at the end-of-the-Summer party. Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party where she was abused and now she is an outcast dealing with depression. Towards the end of the novel, Melinda finally fights back as Andy tries to rape her a second time.

Speak, a novel by Laurie Halse Anderson, is about named Melinda caught up in the high school chaos trying to find a way to tell everyone what happened to her over the summer. Heather, a new kid from Ohio who becomes friends with Melinda leaves her to be part of a group known as “The Marthas”. Heather is bubbly, determined, and egocentric.

During the summer as Melinda was approaching 9th grade year, she was raped at an end of summer party by a very popular upper class man named Andy Evans. After the incident, Melinda called the cops on the party

I read the book Speak over the summer for the summer reading assignment. This book was about a Freshman at Merryweather High School named Melinda Sordino. The book tells us readers about the life of Melinda and how she went to a party with her friends the summer before they started freshman year and turns out it was a senior party that involved beer Melinda had a couple beers but made her drunk enough that she had poor judgement and a senior boy that she had met there took her away and raped her. Melinda calls the police because she is confused about what just happened to her and gets the party shut down and some of the seniors got arrested. Ever since that party none of her friends or anybody wants to talk to her, but she never told anyone that she was raped. On

A representation of Mr. Freeman being a supportive friend to Melinda comes into play. Mr. Freeman helped Melinda find the courage to speak about her awful situation and helped her grow from it. He helped her open up and not forever hiding the truth. Overall, Melinda evolves from a girl that was scared to speak the truth now she transformed into someone who is capable of doing that in a sufficient way. In conclusion, with the support of friends and abutments Melinda is now able to grow from past situations.

Melinda was an outcast and loner in high school who was overwhelmed, fearful, and confused with her life and her environment at school. She was always silent in class and afraid to speak in front of people. Many students today might feel the need to fit in with other people so they wouldn’t have to be looked down upon. As we take a look at Melinda’s life we’ll be able to see how she handles her daily conflicts. In the book, Speak, Melinda Sordino, an incoming freshman at Merryweather High, starts her year off with a terrible start. She’s stuck with a mean history teacher, by who she calls Mr. Neck and a whole bunch of other weird teachers like her English teacher of who she calls, Hairwomen, because of her crazy, uncombed

He hurt me. It wasn’t my fault, though. And I’m not going to let it kill me. I can grow” (Anderson 197-198). From this quote, readers can take away the fact that Melinda is now accepting what happened and is willing to flourish from it.

We all read her story and saw that it was very difficult for her to express her feelings to anyone. The quote was about her finally telling her story and how good it made her feel as she did it. I wanted to include this quote to demonstrate that telling one’s story is difficult but once you tell you will feel better. In the PSA I presented the quote in the color teal because Melinda was raped and she needed to tell her story about it so it relates to spreading awareness of sexual assault. I used this as pathos to make the audience feel confident to tell their

Something had happened during that summer party that made her want to end her silence and speak up. During the summer, Melinda got raped by a senior boy called Andy Evans. Whom she

Melinda isn't speaking to anyone, and no one will talk to her, except the new girl, Heather, who moved from the state of Ohio. Realistically, Heather being the new girl just wants to make friends. Heather doesn't know what is really going on with Melinda because she just moved to town. Heather has no idea what happened the night when Melinda called the police, which busted a summer party. In fact, no one knows, except for Melinda, what happened to her at the party? She is convinced that because she is a victim, no one understands her. The whole world, including her world, is out to get her and so it is best for her to remain silent.

The quest first begins to take shape when it is revealed that the reason for Melinda’s social ostracism is that she broke up a party that took place during the summer by calling the cops (Anderson 27). Although at the time it is not revealed why, later it is discovered that her call to police was a call for help as a reaction to the assault but immediately after the event she is unable to tell the operator what happened (Anderson 136). This inability to speak about the assault and Melinda’s attempt to overcome it appears again when she writes to Rachel about the rape and inform her that it was her boyfriend who was her rapist. However, despite this being the first time she confides in someone about what happened, she is immediately lambasted and called a liar by Rachel (Anderson 183-4). By the end of the novel she is finally ready to speak about and to verbalize what happened to her on the night of the assault.

This book by Laurie Halse Anderson follows Melinda a teenage girl with a huge secret to hide from her friends-well that is if everyone did not hate her already. With the traditional teen angst and the pressures of high school this book looks at how speaking or not speaking can either hinder or hurt you. In the end which is better to stay silent or speak up? With a positive message Speak is an adored book that deals with real issues and how to resolve them.

Melinda is an incredible example of strength. Many rape victims take a downhill slide and are never able to recover from it, despite the support of friends/family. Melinda not only was able to recover from this fall, but she was also able to separate her decisions from the influence of her parents. Melinda was able to access and address her behavior despite the difficult circumstances.

In “Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson,the main character is Melinda Sordino… The author wants Melinda to speak to her friends,family, and teachers. Thorough the book,Melinda has problems with her family. For example Her parents are always working.They don't check on Melinda when she gets home.