Introvertive Voice In Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak

Firstly, how have you ever complained to someone about unfair treatment? Words give people the potential to combat the opposition, and when Melinda was silenced, she was unable to take a stand, and let herself be abused. The first time Melinda lets herself be bullied by her tranquility, is in the cafeteria with a teacher. She was pounded by mash potatoes, and when she tried to run out to clean her shirt, she was stopped by her teacher. As written on page 9, “It is easier not to say anything. Shut your trap, button your lip, can it. [...] Nobody really wants to hear what you have to say.” This quote shows how Melinda chooses not to retaliate, since she is afraid of Mr. Neck, the teacher on lunch duty. She wears her dirty shirt the rest of the

To summarize, standing up for yourself is the theme of Speak. If Melinda had spoken up in the beginning, she wouldn’t have been raped. Andy also wouldn’t have used her as an easy target since she wouldn’t speak up. But, because she spoke up at the end, Melinda saved herself.

Melinda’s friends, or lack thereof, have changed who she has become. A great example of this is Valentine’s Day, when her only friend decided hey could no longer be seen together. “I bend down to find what dropped from the card. It was the friendship necklace I had given Heather in a fit of insanity around Christmas. Stupid stupid stupid.

It takes courage to go somewhere they feel uncomfortable, where you are hated. But because of courage Melinda was able to go to school and receive an education and she was able to make a new friend who didn’t know her past. On page 4 she says “I am outcast”. That line shows that she knows how she isn’t liked by the school but she went anyway and showed courage anyway. Since she was courageous, by the end of the book mostly everyone accepted her for being so strong and brave because of her

Laurie Halse Anderson shows the reader COURAGE is a theme in ‘Speak’ because on page 9 MELINDA got smacked in the chest with potatoes and tries to storm out when she is stopped by a teacher (MR.NECK) who won't let her out because she is too afraid to tell him what she was doing. She needed COURAGE. Another theme is FEAR, MELINDA has/had a fear of speaking, about anything, about what happened. This is shown on page 97 and 9 when instead of talking and confronting Melinda just runs away; in both situations. On page 97 Melinda runs away from Andy when he offers her a bite of a jelly doughnut (tauntingly and creepily not as a friend).

We all have to face the positives and the negatives in life, what you make of it will shape you to who you are meant to be. In the book Speak written by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda Sordino, the protagonist of the book, is a 14 year old girl who gets severely depressed and loses the ability to “speak” after she got sexually harassed at a party. Melinda is also an outcast in her school because of people’s misunderstanding of her, but many of her great qualities made her survive through all the pain. Melinda has a strong sense of self-awareness, as she is aware of what happened to her has changed her. Secondly, her courage has helped her stand out, and fight for herself. Lastly, her inner strength has made her strong as she slowly overcomes

The main character of “Speak” is a freshman girl named Melinda Sordino, who attends Merryweather High School in Syracuse, New York. Before going into high school, Melinda and her friends all went to a party over the summer. Just like any high school party, there was drinking, smoking and boys. Being given attention by any high school boy when you’re a freshman is like a dream come true, except not to Melinda. At the party Melinda got pulled aside and taken away by Andy Evans, a senior. While they were together, Andy raped Melinda. In a panic, Melinda not knowing what else to do, called the police. However, this ultimately busted the party and caused every there as well as her closest friends to reject her. She then started high school with

Why does melinda hate herself so much she doesn't like to see her. Body image is important for melinda because she was undergoing depression.

Through the ups and downs of life everyone makes courageous decisions to improve people’s life experiences and those that surround us. The book Speak written by Laurie Halse Anderson talks about the ups and downs of high school while coexisting our personal lives. The main character Melinda gets assaulted at a party and has to work up the courage to talk about that night. It is important to be courageous in life to overcome obstacles and positively reach milestones. Many courageous people have accomplished huge milestones. Melinda may not have accomplished anything huge but Melinda did talk to Rachel about what happened that night, tells Andy no, and opens up to Mr.Freemen about everything. There was many more important moments but these were Melinda's most accomplished milestones.

In the beginning of the novel, Melinda was upset and nervous because she called the cops on a party early in the summer. Nobody understood that she did it because she was raped, so all of the school despised her. This caused her to blend in, and act like nothing happened, which proved to be difficult. Laurie Halse Anderson represents this feeling when Melinda struggles to draw a simple tree. She says, “How hard can it be to put a tree on a piece of paper? Two vertical lines for the trunk. Maybe some thick branches… and plenty of leaves to hide the mistakes” (p.32). This shows that Melinda was trying to cover up the mistakes she made, and look like everything was fine. The people who used to be

Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a story written in the first person about a young girl named Melinda Sordino. The title of the book, Speak, is ironically based on the fact that Melinda chooses not to speak. The book is written in the form of a monologue in the mind of Melinda, a teenage introvert. This story depicts the story of a very miserable freshman year of high school. Although there are several people in her high school, Melinda secludes herself from them all. There are several people in her school that used to be her friend in middle school, but not anymore. Not after what she did over the summer. What she did was call the cops on an end of summer party on of her friends was throwing. Although

The story started in an ambiguous atmosphere ,as readers don’t know what happened to Melinda she refused to speak she only wants to live in her isolation. some people in their depression tries to speak, and others chooses to keep themselves silent and get stressed when they are given a heavy workload, like “why me ?” ,as they are too weak or shame to face the world around them ,and this exactly what happened to Melinda in this novel .People experiencing passive anger may not even realize they are angry, because passive angry maybe repressed, it can be hard to recognize. In this long term, these suppressed angry feelings can easily be a main reasson for psychological suffering. As readers can only notice that she carried a folded story that will be displayed through flashback

Melinda’s room suggests that she is a girly-girl. However, Melinda explains that she went through a “demented phase” in grade 5 which led her to decorate her room that way. From that, I can infer that now she isn't really into that type of stuff. To me, Melinda seems like the kind of girl who doesn't really express her feelings because usually people decorate their rooms to reflect their personalities, likes, and dislikes. But Melinda said that her room design was mostly stolen from everyone else. She also said she doesn't know what she would want it to look like anyways which, again, hints Melinda’s lack of communication. Furthermore, on page 33, when Melinda sees Heather’s room for the first time, she thinks, “The room screams Heather.

The book “Speak” stated many great themes, but the one that stood out to me the most was the theme of isolation. At the beginning of the book Melinda is outcasted by her peers. A good representation of how she felt is when she says “I stand in the center aisle of the auditorium, a wounded zebra in a National Geographic special, looking for someone, anyone, to sit next to”. Even at the beginning of the book, isolation is big problem, because not only is Malinda isolated but everyone else is isolated in their own groups. Detachment from society feeds Melinda’s depression to an extent were she can no longer control. Not only is she excluded at school but at home as well. The unfortunate thing is that Melinda can not even speak to her own parents.

A second, factor that has shaped Melinda is her being depressed. At lunch in the chapter 2nd marking Heather was making the point that Melinda