In the start of the novel, Melinda’s life is completely frozen. She struggles in school, fights with her parents, and most importantly, doesn’t open up to anyone about her feelings. As the novel extends to the middle point, Melinda slowly begins to thaw. Not only does she start to unfreeze, she begins to open up to specific and important people in her life. Opening up allows her to feel true happiness and trust. FInally, as the book starts to make way towards the ending, Melinda is starting to fully unveil and open up to important people in her life. The author is explaining that if the character thaws out instead of holding it all in, the character’s life will become much better. Melinda will have people by her side for the next tough situation that heads her way. …show more content…
She struggles in school, fights with her parents, and most importantly, doesn’t open up to anyone about her feelings. The protagonist doesn’t know how to express her feelings to others, so she expresses them differently. “I bite my lips… they bleed.” (Anderson 5) Also, Melinda believes expressing feelings makes it worse and that things are better left unsaid. The story stated, “It is easier not to say anything. Shut your trap, button your lip, can it. All that crap on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie. (Anderson 9) “I knew you were trouble the first time I saw you. I’ve taught here for twenty-four years and I can tell what’s going on in a kid’s head just by looking in their eyes… You just earned yourself a demerit.”
(Anderson 9) This quote is explaining how in the novel, Melinda continuously ignores authority and her parents. In conclusion, throughout the start of the novel, Melinda’s life is completely frozen. She struggles in school, fights with her parents, and most importantly, doesn’t open up to anyone about her
The big idea that I get from this book is that some burdens are just to big and the only was to handle them is together. The problem is that so many people are ashamed and would rather hide it that handle the situation. If all girls, or boys, who were put in situations like Melinda would speak up maybe there would be more justice in our
Melinda Sordino has been influenced by peer pressure.Moreover, she has been peer pressured and doing terrible things. She experienced it quite a few times because when she was at the party she was drinking and when Melinda got to the new school called Merryweather high she ditched earned bad grades and didn't do her work in most classes. Consequently Melinda couldn't handle it that well because she didn't talk about it .She should have handled it differently by telling the people no
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.
This quote show that Melinda is an outcast, “ I have no friends. I have nothing to say. I say nothing" (Anderson 116). This quote shows that Melinda is insecure because, while Melinda is in the guidance counselor's office, her counselor is telling her that she’s been failing her classes and Melinda feels insecure. She feels out of place in the environment. Melinda is self-conscious that she feels she has to try to be pretty in order to gain her popularity back. Since Melinda has lost some friends coming into high school, she’s been feeling down on herself and depressed. Also, Melinda shows that she is insecure by saying, “ I am an outcast “( 8 Anderson). This proves that Melinda is insecure because before the start of High School Melinda was a very popular girl which is now an outcast. Until things went wrong for Melinda and she called the cops. Melinda had called the cops because she had been raped when she was drunk, so her first response was to call the cops. The cops had shown up, making everyone leave the party because of underage drinking and everyone knows Melinda has called the cops. Since that has happened she feels insecure by being an outcast. Because of this Melinda no longer is popular nor has no friends. Melinda feels she is insecure because she’s an outcast and has no friends which these feelings lead
When Melinda draws for her art class she has to draw trees and the trees represent her life and how she feels. When Melinda was drawing the trees she said “ But when I try and carve it, it looks like a dead tree, toothpicks, a childs drawing, I can’t bring it to life. I would love to give it up, quit, but i can't think of anything else to do so i keep chipping away at it.” (pg.78) As she draws the trees she realizes that they can represent her and her life. The trees are dead looking with branches, thats how Melinda feels she feels like nobody cares and nobody is there for her. Melinda does not know who she wants to be and throughout the novel she will figure it out. High School helps Melinda know who she wants to
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 started off in the story afraid, lonely, and out of place. “I have entered high school with the wrong hair, the wrong clothes, the wrong attitude. And I don’t have anyone to
She doesn't talk to her family they use post it notes to communicate.Furthermore, she has problems with her friends. All of melinda's old friends hate her because she called the cops at a party.They dropped her like a hot pop tart on the cold friend
“It is my first morning of high school. I have seven new notebooks, a skirt I hate, and a stomachache,” (Anderson 3). These are Melinda Sordino's first thoughts as she enters her first year of high school. Melinda dreads having to be around so many people and is shunned by other students for calling the police at a summer party. She falls into depression and decides to stay silent about what happened. As the school year goes on, Melinda knows that she will have to face her biggest fear: to speak. Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Speak, uses numerous archetypes and allusions to put a powerful impact on readers. These archetypes and allusions make Melinda’s struggles relatable to real life problems and situations and reflect universal
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
Throughout this fragment of Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson portrays Melinda with an introvertive voice. Melinda is having a hard time warming up to her new high school. The excerpt starts off with Melinda trying to find a place to sit in the lunchroom. “There’s that new girl, Heather, reading by the window. I could sit across from her. Or I could crawl behind a trash can.” (Paragraph 2) Melinda would rarther hide and go unnoticed than interact with other students. This quote shows us that she’s willing to take great measures to avoid being observed. Another example of diction was when Melinda was seen without a hallway pass by Mr. Neck, and when she was asked to explain herself, she just thinks to herself: “It is easier to not say anything… Nobody
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.
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
Here, readers can see that Melinda, that melinda goes into her closet once again. The closet is like her free and hiding place. Where she can do anything she would like to. But at the same time it’s like a prison to her, because when she goes in, she doesn’t want to come out. She wants to make the closet a sanctuary, a place to be in peace and safe, to think and sleep. It’s a place where she can do whatever she likes without being judged.
At the beginning of the book, Melinda was at a high school party and was sexually assaulted by a senior student. This happened in late August, and Melinda is extremely scarred and traumatized by the incident. In the fall, Melinda is so broken that she cannot even speak – she does not tell anyone what happened