Violence Exposed In Melinda Sordino's Novel Speak

When teachers provide enough care for their students, they are capable of helping even the emotionally distressed. When their students perceive that they are being cared for, they gain a sense of trust for these teachers and would be compelled to speak about what is truly bothering them. An example of this is clearly represented through the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. The ninth-grade protagonist, Melinda Sordino, had luckily enrolled herself into an art class with a truly altruistic teacher by the name of Mr. Freeman. Melinda had become more demure and wan after she was raped over the summer by an errant student in the twelfth grade identified as Andy Evans.

Although she had been averse to the project given to her, she gradually began to like it. It was the only class she actually tried her best at, as an outlet to express herself, even if it was just the slightest bit. Over the next couple weeks, Melinda started to eat lunch with Heather and went on a couple trips to Heather’s home. The two formed an unhealthy friendship where Heather did about 90 percent of the talking, as she was much more social then Melinda. She wanted to be popular, however, which meant joining a one of the many cliques of high school.

“One out of every five students report being bullied’’. This fact from the National bullying prevention center shows that a lot of kids are being bullied. In Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, Stargirl faces three types of bullying but one event has a major impact on Stargirl and through these events, we are shown Spinelli's opinions and ideas on bullies. Emotional bullying is shown throughout Stargirl as she gets bullied by her classmates and school members. After the basketball team loses, the whole school blames the loss on Stargirl.

The next way that other students shape Melinda’s identity is through giving her hope and then taking it away when she did not realize that she had any. When Melinda finds out that Heather decided to go her own way,

Children in the age range thirteen to fifteen are often transitioning through a critical time of their lives. They frequently look to others as a cicerone on how they themselves should act. In the novel, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda Sordino calls the cops on an end-of-summer party at which she was raped. The novel depicts Melinda’s excursion as to how she copes with the heart-wrenching events that have affected her momentously as well as creating “[a] frightening and sobering look at the cruelty and viciousness that pervade much of contemporary high school life.” (Kirkus Reviews, Pointer Review).

Whale Talk Bullying, harassment, and racism is a very common scenario among our new generation, that happens far too much. In fact over eighty percent of people have experienced some type of bullying whether it was physical, verbal, or even cyber bullying. Chris Crutcher saw the realism of our society and the outlook on bullying and wrote the book Whale Talk to emphasize the impact of bullying, racism and violence, and how serious the matter can be. Furthermore how it can affect a person and their everyday lives.

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).

In “How to Handle a Bully,” by Kathiann Kowalski, an experienced journalist, Kowalski reports the different strategies to stop bullying. She informs that bullying is at its peak in the late teenage years, but can start in an early age. Kowalski concurs that girls intimidates as much as boys; however, they do it differently. She explores many reasons why bullying occurs at the first place, and who starts bullying. Kowalski exemplifies the situations that victims could be in, and the solution on how to handle the bully.

n the critical literacy book, The Bully, by Paul Langan a highschool boy named Darrell Mercer, who just moved from Philadelphia to California to a new school and is already being bullied by new students that are way bigger and stronger than Darrell. Everyday when Darrell is bullied, Darrell gets more worried that he is going to get beat up everyday. When Darrell had enough from being bullied Darrell wanted to get bigger and stronger than he was bullied, because Darrell is short, shorter than 5ft, and skinny, about 100lbs. Mr.Mitchell Finds out Tyray Hobbs the bully was bullying Darrell every day. gave Darrell a inspiring book to read, when Darrell was reading the inspiring book it gave Darrell a courage that Darrell will join the wrestling team and eventually stand up to his own bully, 

“Don’t Call Me Ishmael”, written by Michael Gerard Bauer is a humorous novel that interacts with the readers especially young readers by exploring what high school is like for those who are being bullied and harassed but it also explores different stages of how friendships first develops. The protagonist who is a 9th grader named Ishmael Lesseur is sticking to the shadows and staying out of everyone’s way especially Barry Bagsley who has target Ishmael and has been harassing him since first day of year 8 at St Daniels Boys Collage. Throughout the book Ishmael struggles with identifying who he is and what he is worth. Michael Gerard Bauer has added sarcasm, irony, puns, embarrassing and humorous moments in the book to keep all the readers engrossed

In the book Speak by, Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character Melinda, tries to find her voice all throughout the book. Then she meets her art teacher Mr. Freeman. He helps her all throughout her school year express her and stand up for herself at the end of the year, when she has another problem with the same guy that hurt her before school started. Mr. Freeman helps Melinda express herself by getting better at speaking, expressing herself, and also standing up for herself. Melinda was finding her voice all throughout the school year.

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.

Bullying has been named an “emerging public health issue requiring intervention” (Ansary, Elias, Greene, & Green, 2015, p. 27). As a major problem in schools around the world, the issue of bullying must be addressed in order to keep students physically and emotionally safe. The act of bullying not only affects the well-being of the person being targeted, but it also affects the rest of the school community too. It can be difficult for teachers, principals, and superintendents to make an ethical decision about what to do when bullying occurs because there are misunderstandings about what bullying is, leading to the improper identification of situations.

Dialogue is used in a writing piece in order to move the plot, to develop or define the character, or just to deepen the conflict. All together, dialogue is used to help the reader infer the theme of the text. Sandra Cisneros expresses the theme throughout the novel with the use dialogue to develop the characters in The House on Mango Street which retells her life experiences that made her who she is today in vignettes just like No Speak English. In her other work of literature, Eleven she shows the same theme, with the addition of the theme that there is a certain amount of power held by age. In the texts Eleven and No Speak English by Sandra Cisneros, the use of dialogue helps reveal aspects of the characters in each piece in order to develop the theme of identity and belonging.

Bullying is a widespread problem in our schools and communities and has a negative impact on students’ right to learn in a safe and secure environment without fear. It is a process in which one person repeatedly uses his/her superior strength or influence to mistreat, attack or force another person to do something (Van der Werf, 2014). Bullying or peer victimization is now recognized as a complex and pervasive problem (Beran, 2009). It is an ongoing problem that is not restricted by age, race, gender or class. This behavior generally takes one of four forms, physical such as assault, verbal which involves threats or insults, social which entails exclusion or rumor spreading, and cyber which includes aggressive texts or social network posts