Melinda's Savior In Speak

It all started when Jimmy, the brother of Rachel, her best friend, took them to a end of the summer party with a bunch of cheerleaders, beer, seniors,

Melinda, the main character of speak was raped at a summer party. She calls the cops and that is where it all started. When Melinda reaches high school she is faced with all her old friends. They all hate her and want nothing to do with her, because of her calling the cops. Throughout the whole book Melinda runs into tough situations that eventually lead to her standing up for herself. Eventually, everyone finds out the truth, of why Melinda calls the cops. Although Melinda learns to stand up for herself, throughout the book she shows signs of depression such as poor performance in school, sadness and hopelessness, and withdrawal of friends and activities.

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.

Speaking out is a tough task for many people that have dealt with horrible, traumatic situations. In the novel Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character, Melinda, is one of those people who lost their voice. To be able to understand another person’s emotions, feelings, and situations is very difficult to do, especially because of how our society has formed and became a very judgmental place. Melinda Sordino starts her freshman year at Merryweather High School in Syracuse, New York, to a terrible start; she is a victim of a sexual assault and loses her confidents and voice to speak out. The more she interacts and makes new friends is how she starts to reach out and become more self-sufficient. Few weeks into school Melinda’s only

Melinda got tired of living the pain. “Jeans that fit, that’s a good start. I have to stay away from the closet. I will make myself normal. Forget the rest of it,” (chapter 59, page 125). Melinda is tired of feeling stressed. She is growing as a person. She doesn’t want to be stuck in that situation anymore. She is now taking control because having flashbacks and trying to forget is not helping.

Melinda debates whether to tell Rachel that her current boyfriend was an assaulter. “I could talk to Rachel. (Yeah, right.) I could say I'd heard bad things about Andy. (It would only make him more attractive.) I could maybe tell her what happened. (As if she'd listen. What if she told Andy? What would he do?) (…) I need to do something about Rachel, something for her. Maya tells me without saying anything. I stall. Rachel will hate me. (She already hates me.) She won't listen. (I have to try.) I groan and rip out a piece of notebook paper. I write her a note, a left-handed note, so she won't know it's from me.” (151-152). Melinda finally confronts Rachel and tells her what exactly happened to her, but Rachel did not believe Melinda as she really liked Andy. Rachel apologizes to Melinda when she realizes when Andy attacks Melinda again because he got to know what she told Rachel. Melinda was brave even though she was unexpectedly attacked by Andy for the second time. This time, she fought back before Andy could do anything that was seriously harmful to her and she threatened to stab him with a piece of sharp broken glass. This shows us how Melinda developed from a scared girl to a person who threatened to kill her

They first met at an end of the year party. At the time, she was entering ninth grade and this was her first high school party. He met up with Melinda after she had a few drinks not long after they encountered they left the party to have a little fun of there own. Melinda feels like she is worthless and not needed. She wasn't able tell him to stop, "’I thought it was a little rude, but my tongue was thick with beer and I couldn't figure out how to tell him to slow down’" (134). Andy raped Melinda and that was only the beginning. He makes her life miserable. All she thinks about is Andy and how he wouldn’t stop. Her influences her life in ways that are not positive. He has her shut out of the world because she doesn’t want to be noticed by anyone. Melinda

As seen throughout the novel, Melinda presented major symptoms of self-destruction to the audience as a result from the rape. First of all, there are many signs of this type of behavior, one that Melinda has shown on various occasions are acts of physical harm. The most serious example of this is was in “Rent Round” on page 87 when Melinda was in her closet after a rough day. “I open up a paperclip and scratch it across the inside of my left wrist…… I draw little windowcracks of blood, etching line after line until it stops hurting”. At this point in the novel, we know this quote proves an act of attempted suicide, which greatly relates with self-destructive behavior. This quote/event is great evidence of how the rape affected Melinda mentally.

Talking to someone releases a sense of relief for now somebody else knows and that specific information is not as powerful to only the protagonist. Opening up to someone releases how the protagonist feels, which is vital because then that someone will help Melinda get past the event that occurred. If Melinda doesn’t speak up and convey her emotions to someone, she won’t move on from the

It was wrong to dump Melinda when she needed friends the most. Her friends should have tried to talk to her so they could have found out the reason why she called the cops. In the end; most of her friends weren’t actual friends, none of her friends should have stopped talking to her because she called the cops to the party. If they would have talked to her they would have discovered that Andy had raped Melinda. The way Melinda’s friend treated her was unfair. They were never her real friends anyways, but they could have at least tried to be there for her. Everyone could see that she was sad and lonely.

The most courageous moment in the book was Melinda telling Rachel about Andy. Melinda wanted to protect Rachel even after what Rachel did that past year. Melinda says “I didn’t call the cops to break up the party, I write. I called- I put the pencil down. I pick it up again- them because some guy raped me. Under the trees.”(Anderson 183). This was a monumental step for Melinda, after months of not talking to anyone but Ivy and Heather she opened up to her ex best friend.

In the book Speak, the main character is a girl named Melinda. Her life is being shaped by multiple factors . Two factors that have shaped Melinda is losing heather as a friend and her being depressed.

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

In the book Speak, Melinda was very popular, and happy with her life, until Andy Evans raped her. This traumatic experience changed her forever, and she became mute. In the book speak it explains Melinda’s struggle with herself as she goes threw her years in high school. One example of this is on page 132, when Melinda has self talk with herself. “I think it’s some kind of psychiatric disorder when you have more than one personality in your head. That’s what it feels like when I walk home.” (132 Anderson) This quote shows Melinda’s struggle with herself, and how she never can make up her mind. One experience like rape in Melinda’s case can change you forever and make you suicidal.

It’s likely that her paranoid side became more eminent only after she had been raped at the party, but those are quite extreme sides. The optimistic and the pessimistic parts fight for control to make the best choice. Everyone has encountered this at least once in their life. In any case, however, the constant battle left her exhausted and still not able to be happy. Because she couldn’t find closure, she was unable to find a middle ground with the two sides. Melinda just wanted to stop being miserable, and she thought that if she didn’t think she wouldn’t hurt so much. If she didn’t think, she didn’t worry and the two sides of her didn’t fight, then she’d be happier. Yet, if she didn’t think, then she’s not herself either. It’s important to find a good balance between extreme optimism and pessimism, for too much of each can lead to dangerous naivete and stressful depression respectively. Melinda’s blind innocence had led to her downfall at the party, and her depression had led to her to be paranoid and miserable. In the end of the novel however, the two Melinda were not kicked out but united, allowing her to finally reach the closure and to be