Alicia kim's blog

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson – July 21, 2024

Introduction:
Speak is a coming-of-age novel by Laurie Halse Anderson. It was published in 1999. The story’s main character, Melinda Sordino, has a hard time dealing with the trauma that caused her to stop speaking. This is one of the best novels that expresses trauma and problems. This novel reflects on the author’s experiences as she has been through similar occurrences and trauma as Melinda.

Plot:
Melinda starts high school, but her old friends now hate her. She’s embarrassed by teachers and other students. She befriends a new girl named Heather, but her best friend, Rachel, doesn’t try to understand what happened to Melinda over the summer. Melinda struggles in her classes and often skips school. She hides in a janitor’s closet and gets made fun of by other students. At home, Melinda’s parents are upset when they find out she’s failing. Through it all, Melinda keeps thinking about the traumatizing event from the summer as she calls it ‘IT’. School is very difficult for Melinda. She skips doing homework to nap instead. In class, a student named David stands up to the racist teacher Mr. Neck. Melinda’s friend Heather gives her an early Christmas gift, and Melinda plans to give Heather a friendship necklace. But over Christmas break, Melinda almost tells her parents something that happened to her in the summer, though she can’t bring herself to. When school starts again, Melinda impresses the basketball coaches but doesn’t want to join the team. She also helps Heather try to join a club. Melinda’s grades stay poor, and her parents yell at her about it. After, Melinda hurts herself with a paper clip. A boy named Andy starts bothering Melinda, making her sick, but she still hasn’t told anyone about what happened over the summer. Melinda keeps skipping school and avoiding Andy. Heather ends their friendship and returns Melinda’s necklace. Melinda thinks no one would like the ‘real’ her. Her parents yell at her after a school meeting, and she gets suspended. In art class, Melinda’s teacher helps her feel inspired to start drawing. Melinda feels alone at school, but David invites her to hang out after a basketball game. She declines, thinking the world is dangerous. Finally, Melinda reveals she was “attacked” at a party over the summer. Melinda starts drawing a tree instead of carving one. She finds out Rachel is dating Andy. Melinda warns Rachel about Andy in a note, admitting for the first time that she was raped. She and her friend David plan a protest, and Melinda stands up to her former friend Heather. Melinda writes in the bathroom that girls should stay away from Andy. When Melinda tries to tell Rachel the truth, Rachel calls her a “twisted freak.” Later, Melinda sees others have written bad things about Andy in the bathroom, and she feels she can fly. Melinda no longer needs her hiding spot. But when she’s cleaning it out, Andy attacks her and tries to rape her again. This time, Melinda screams “No,” grabs a glass, and holds it to his neck, telling him “I said no.” With school almost over, Melinda finishes her tree project and gets an A+.

Analysis:
The novel doesn’t reveal the main conflict that led Melinda to have trauma and stop speaking. The main conflict is between Melinda and Andy Evans. Melinda doesn’t reveal what happened to her right away. She doesn’t reveal anything until she introduces what happened only to the readers during the novel. Melinda’s art class is the turning point and a “haven”. Working on a tree project lets her start facing her painful memories. Over time, she goes from not being able to say anything to naming her attacker. Melinda wants to fight back, but some forces make it hard for her to speak up. Her growing symptoms push her to talk, even though no one seems to listen. The novel also includes the theme of family. Her family stopped communicating after the rape, and her parents leave before she can speak. Her family has weak bonds and Melinda repeatedly gets tired of them for getting disappointed at her grades while they don’t have the urge to listen to her reasons. The novel talks about voting on a new school mascot to show the theme of democracy. Melinda’s friend David stands up for students’ right to speak, showing Melinda she needs to speak up about what happened to her. David is a true role model to Melinda during the novel as she had learned a lot from him. Another detail that could be mentioned in the book is change. When she got raped, this experience changed her not just physically but mentally. This tells us that going through change is good enough but it isn’t good to be going through trauma to change oneself. Melinda realizes she needs to speak up – her trauma is hurting her, and her attacker Andy will keep hurting girls unless she exposes him. She slowly admits the truth – she clearly said no and tried to fight him off. Another lesson could be learned in this novel: keeping everything to yourself isn’t always good, it can also hurt you. In the end, she shares the truth and she frees herself from the trauma.

Conclusion:
Speak is a young-adult novel by Laurie Halse Anderson, published in 1999. The book tells the story of Melinda Sordino who has trauma from being raped during the summer and refuses to speak to almost anyone. By the end of the story, she stands up for herself and speaks up about her trauma. The novel has themes of trauma, democracy, family, etc. The lesson of the book could be “Keeping everything to yourself isn’t always good, it can also suffocate you.”