The Seasons Of Melinda In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

At this point in the novel, the only thing revealed about what happened was that she had called the cops on a high school party during summer, leaving her friends mad at her. Melinda went through the first few classes and lunch on her terrible first day, finding them all completely miserable.

While Melinda is in her closet where she hides at school, Andy comes in mad at what Melinda said to Rachel/Rachelle, he tries to strangle her then he hits her. She breaks a mirror and grabs a glass shard holding it to his neck, he begins to bleed. She wanted to push it in further

From the beginning of the book, where she seeks to avoid herself to now where Melinda empowers herself and stands up against

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is a book about a girl named Melinda Sordino. In the beginning of this book the audience meets Melinda as she is the main character and she describes her first day of high school starting with an assembly. Throughout the book you read about her life but she goes back to the past recalling of something that happened at the end of the summer; in a couple of instances she comes across someone that she refers to as “IT”. When reading you don't know who this “IT” is but it is developed over the story by her having flashbacks to that night or dropping a hint of what happened. During a seminar at the beginning of the book Melinda meets someone named Heather who is new and becomes her friend but ultimately leaves her

After Melinda tells Rachel that Andy raped her, Rachel freaks out and doesn’t believe her. All through the book, if Melinda needs somewhere to go to be alone during school, she goes to an abandoned janitors

When assigned the word “tree” in her art class, she started to use art to express herself. The first tree was dark and gloomy because to show how she felt inside at the time, the second tree was more of a fake looking tree because of one of her only “friends”, Heather, had started to hang around the “Marthas”, whom were considered fake in Melinda’s mind. When it came to her last drawing, the tree become more real and gave off a stronger feel to it, this was because she had started talking to a girl named Ivy and for the first time since the night of the party that started it all she said something to her ex-friend, Rachel, giving her a lot of confidence. Drawing the trees really helped Melinda in ways not even she noticed. It helped her express herself without forcing her to do anything out of her comfort zone, like

The damage caused by her experiences at the party left her feeling broken and hopeless, and is the cause of her depression. Secondly, as the diseased branches on the large tree in Melinda’s yard are being cut down her father states that “by cutting off the damage, you can make it possible for the tree to grow again,” and that it will eventually be “the strongest on the block” (Anderson 187). The tree represents Melinda, and the diseased branches represent the damage that was left behind from the incident during the party. She refuses to talk about what happened, and due to that, it’s slowly dragging her even deeper into depression, however, if she would open up and talk about it she would have the ability to pull herself out.

Change by Rape Only 7% of the perpetrators of sexual assault are not related to the victim based off of reported cases that RAINN, a National Sexual Assault Hotline, recorded. The book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, shows where this statistic is true. Following the protagonist, Melinda Sordino, during her freshman year after having been raped in the summer, the book highlights external factors that affect her identity. She struggles to cover up what happened while she meets new people who change her identity in many ways, sometimes helping and other times changing it for the worse. The main people who externally affect her identity are her parents; her peers; and her rapist, Andy Evans.

At the end of the story she finally found her voice and was able to stand up for herself. In the beginning, Melinda didn't talk to anyone, barely even to her parents. She says, “I have tried so hard to forget every second of that stupid party and here I am in the middle of a hostile crowd that hates me for what I had to do. I can't tell them what really happened” (Anderson, 28).

But after the rape, Melinda is not happy with anything in her life and she is always stressed out. This is represented when she states, “But when I try to carve it, it looks like a dead tree, toothpicks, a child’s drawing. I can’t bring it to life. I’d love to give it up” (78). Melinda has changed dramatically, and this is represented by the tree she sees versus the tree she tries to make.

For instance, she tells rachel about what happened at the party. Once Melinda learns that Andy and Rachel are attending prom together, she needed to tell Rachel about what Andy did. “I was stupid and drunk and I didn’t know what was happening and then he hurt-I scribbled that out-raped me” (183). Melinda finally telling someone about what happened is a perfect example of her recovery. At the beginning of the novel, she could not even talk to her friends.

She was found in a closet by the lacrosse team crying for help. Her peers now understand the reason she called the cops at a party over the summer, and what she went through that year. Melinda is making new friends, and forgiving her old ones for the way they treated her after the incident. Melinda understands what happened to her can’t be fixed, but it will help her grow stronger. “My tree is definitely breathing; little shallow breaths like it just shot up from the ground this morning….the new growth is the best part” (196).

She has been assigned the subject of a tree to explore for the whole year, and the images she struggles to create are representative of the confusion and darkness within her. Anderson equates Melinda to a tree throughout the novel, using the symbol to document Melinda’s journey to

Speak In the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson we see the main character, Melinda, grow as a person against great adversity. Speak is a very powerful book with relatable characters. Speak shows us another side of a story we usually don't get see. We first see Melinda as she is entering her first year of high school.

Melinda, in a lot of ways, starts out like that it the book. She becomes a shell of herself from before the party happened and because no one else was there, she is lonely and doesn't have anybody to go to and to make matters even worse, she’s covered by the reputation that she has formed. In the book, Laurie Halse Anderson uses symbolism to convey exactly what Melinda can't say. In the beginning of the book, Melinda starts high school carrying her emotional wounds with her after something happens mysterious to her at a party during the summer.