Summary Of Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

From the very beginning of the book, Speak is an incredibly moving story no one can forget. Melinda Sordino, a freshmen in High School, finds herself pitted against depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts after being ostracized by her fellow classmates. Throughout the book Melinda withdraws from her old social life with her best friend Rachel to a scared, timid girl who is afraid to open her mouth for anything. Right from the start, she is forced into a corner by her EX-best friend, Rachel and many other kids. Constantly, she is harassed, has obscene words thrown at her and is hated after calling the cops at a party over the summer break. Melinda, who cannot speak to others about what happened at that party- a rape, slowly beings to cope with her depression in ways that hurt her more than the rape itself.

When she starts school that fall, no one talks to her about what happened and Melinda ends up staying quiet. She tries to act like the event never happened and this has a very bad impact on her relationships at school. On her first day, it can clearly be seen that she is a social outcast. No one talks to her as they blame her for being the reason the party got busted. This further pushes Melinda into silence, eventually leading her into depression.

In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda a young incoming freashman starts off high school depressed and avoided by her classmates and friends. Over the summer Melinda attends a party where she has no choice but to call the police, resulting in all her friends to dismiss and turn against her completely including her best friend Rachel. When Melinda begins high school detached from all of her classmates she tries to befriend Heather, a new student who is unaware of the party conflict. “...we kind of paired up at the beginging of the year when I was new and didnt know anyone and that was really sweet of you but I think its time for the both of us to admit that we...just...are...very...differnt” (105 Anderson) Heather soon realizes

Meet Melinda Sordino, a 14 year old girl and the narrator of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Melinda is a freshman at Merryweather High, where she mainly feels like an outcast. Due to a recent traumatic event, in which Melinda was raped by a highschool senior, she refuses to speak. The young teenager is however extremely loyal. When Melinda sees her ex-best friend in a relationship with her rapist, she is determined to warn her and protect her. She is also extremely strong. Even though Melinda was raped, she sees herself as a survivor more than a victim towards the end. “He hurt me. it wasn’t my fault. And I’m not going to let it kill me. I can grow.” Anderson 198

Melinda's a troubled high schooler who has had difficulties fitting into her freshman class. She is also having trouble finding her identity due to some unfortunate events during the summer. In Laurie Halse Anderson's novel, speak, Melinda the main character is assigned an art project. She is asked to study drawing and research trees throughout the year. Melinda takes this project very seriously, her artwork is the only ways she communicates her emotions to the outside world.

One of the bigger turning points in her life happened when she is raped at a high school senior party. What made it traumatizing was that they are young girls and Melinda didn't realize

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.

Every single person has a secret or an experience that they prefer not to talk about. In this case, Melinda Sordino suffers with the traumatic memory of rape. Within the novel, Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, Sordino’s entire life changes as Andy Evans takes advantage of her innocence by raping her during a party in August. As a result, Sordino’s trauma causes the alteration of her personality and perspective of the world. Sordino ventures throughout the story to rediscover herself as a person and faces several obstacles such as family troubles, disrespectful peers, and the person who has inflicted her with the most mental agony she can possibly withstand.

Melinda Sordino had an impossible choice to make, and at the time she didn’t know it was an impossible choice. At the time she wasn’t thinking about her friends shunning her or her high school calling her a loser, she was only thinking about saving herself, but from what? Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson portrays Melinda Sordino’s freshman year at Merryweather High School in Syracuse, New York. During the summer Melinda went to a party and called the police which caused all of her friends to ignore her. Melinda's only friend is Heather, a new student, who tries to get Melinda involved in her schemes to gain popularity.

Another indication of Melinda’s self-destructive behavior is her loss of concentration. This can proven by Melinda’s declining grades which started off as “Playing Nice- B, Social Studies- C, Spanish-C, Art- A, Lunch- D, Biology-B, Algebra-C+, Clothes-C, English-C , Gym-C+.” After, her grades ended at, “Social Life-F, Social Studies-F, Spanish-D, Art-A, Lunch-D, Biology-D+, Algebra-F, Clothes-F, English-D+, Gym-D.” these quotes demonstrate that Melinda puts little effort into her work, meaning she is distracted and that her school isn’t her main priority. Certainly, her distracted behavior is because she is constantly rewinding the memories of what happened to her; she unable to get this out of her head. Seen from the evidence it is good to say Melinda is having difficulty stay focused. In addition, Melinda has found numerous ways to isolate herself from others. Throughout the book, Melinda takes us to her place of choice, being the abandoned janitor’s closet at her

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

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

These are my initial thoughts as I turn the final page of Speak by Laurie Anderson. I understood and enjoyed some of the concepts of the book—like seeing students as whole people and teaching students to go to others with their troubles. However, because the book was filled with so many stereotypes that simply aren’t true or are overly exaggerated, I had a difficult time relating to much of the book. Melinda Sordino is a freshman at Merryweather High School in Syracuse, New York. She is starting high school as an outcast with a horrible secret.

Starting her Freshman year of High School, Melinda found herself in a very dark, low, depressing, time in her life. She had lost all the ambitions she had for her High School career. She had lost her voice and passion for everything. Until Andy Evans made her find her voice after he sexually assaulted her. After all that Andy had put Melinda through made her find herself and her voice to come back from a traumatizing experience.

In Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda, the main character, faces struggles in Merryweather High that the average student does not face. Melinda has been sexually assaulted by a senior boy and has never told anyone about it, which is leaving her failing classes, lonely, and depressed. As high school drags on, her lab partner, David Petrakis, helps her find the strength to speak again. He does so by encouraging her, being a friend, and inspiring her.