Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a story about Melinda Sordino. Melinda was an incoming freshman at Merryweather High, and was entering ninth grade with no friends. During the first school assembly, the new girl in town, Heather, introduced herself to Melinda, sparking somewhat of a friendship. Melinda also came across her ex-best friend, Rachel. Rachel had mouthed the words “I hate you” to Melinda, even though all she wanted to do was to tell Rachel what really happened at the infamous summer party. 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. …show more content…
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. Once Heather was finally accepted into the Marthas, a group of “nice” girls who did lots of activities in school and the community, she dropped Melinda, except for when she needed
The girls run the club together and their friendship is tested throughout the book. The girls have to overcome the challenges of middle school. They have to learn how to run a business smoothly together. In the book, Stacey has diabetes and is hesitant to tell the other girls because she is afraid that they will think she is a freak. When she tells the other members of the babysitters club, they support her and are kind to her.
She is obviously alone and something terrible has happened for her to bust that end of summer party right before High School. In the book, Melinda has a closet at the school that she has claimed a hers. She has this closet because she doesn’t want to be alone at lunch and doesn’t go to her classes very often. An example of her escaping her classes and thoughts is,” I know my head isn’t screwed on straight. I want to leave, transfer, warp myself to another galaxy.
Throughout the book, Melinda’s problems with her family, For example, her parents and family doesn’t ever have time to spent with her. Furthermore, she has problems with her friends. Like her friends not liking
This relates to her and her struggle but then she recognized it and she taught herself through it and finally changed it to where she speaks for herself now. Melinda finally speaking out changed her whole school year. It had made Melinda’s year so much better. It was definitely had to overcome her fear of speaking but I bet she is glad she was finally able to overcome it.
She was a main part in putting on the cheer camp. Melinda has been the cheer coach for four years. Her favorite part of cheer camp is getting to see all the girls go out in front of the home crowd with smiles on their faces, excited to cheer. Melinda said, “We put on cheer camp because we want to get the girls interested in cheer, and try to help prepare if they want to be on the squad in the future.” When asked if all the hard work put into cheer camp was worth it, she simply stated, “Yes, in future years you’ll see some of these girls cheering, because they had that spark from cheer camp in elementary and middle school.”
Melinda had to find a way to live with the fact that she had lost all of her friends and their trust, or in other words, figure out how to live with depression. Melinda had Rachel and Heather, but they left her because she was ‘selfish’ and ‘foolish’ for calling the cops. Melinda is not interested in gaining popularity and spends most of her time in a janitor 's closet at school. She has stolen some late passes, so she uses the closet as a hideout to avoid teachers she dislikes and painful interactions with her former friends. Her only solace at school is art class, where she is working on a year-long project to create various interpretations of a
Heather does not treat Melinda correctly at the lunch table, but her actions do allude to her final reaction. Heather leaves Melinda awestruck as she tells her that she no longer wants to be friends with Melinda. Heather explains to Melinda their differences and her reasoning for the friendship to end in a very blunt way. This behavior is consistent with the character Anderson has depicted her as. Heather alludes many times she wants to “fit in” and attempts again and again to be part of a group, known as the Malthas.
Speak Journal Response The book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson creates many connections; whether they are real world, virtual or personal. This journal will explain those connections, and show my thoughts on them, as well as how they have impacted my view on different, related, topics. My first connection is about Character, between Melinda’s parents, and Qibli’s (Key-Bee) parent’s in the book Wings of Fire.
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 speak by Laurie Halse Anderson , the main character is Melinda goes to Merryweather High school.she is very lonely here friends don't even hang out with her. She even met her ex best friend . here favorite class is art. The author wants Melinda to speak about her problems. Throughout the book , Melinda has problems with her family for example ,.Her
In the book Speak Melinda called the cops on the party or for help? Nobody knows why exactly they just alienate her from anyone like her best friends which are now her ex best friends to anything like playing "games" in physical education. In the beginning of the book the character Melinda is really just trying to fit in with it being the first day of school and all. She had no friends because what happened over the summer (or what people think happened anyway).
The main setting of “Speak” is Merryweather High School in Syracuse, New York. Other settings include Melinda 's room. She spends most of her time there if she 's not in school. While she is in school, she finds a storage closet no one goes into and creates her year long art project in there. The author chose a high school for the setting to show how outcasted students can be over a rumor and how painful it can be for them.
Once she finally spoke up, her life started to get a lot better because she was finally able to begin the healing process. Melinda didn’t get through all of the stuff that had happened to her during that year by herself, including the summer and during school. She was able to begin healing because
In Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character, Melinda, is in a state of depression following her rape the summer before high school, and undergoes several emotional states. Ironically, her school mascot changes frequently and typically at the same time as her mood. The first connection pertains the name of the old mascot, The Trojans: "Merryweather High—Home of the Trojans" did not send a strong abstinence message, so they have transformed us into the Blue Devils. Better the Devil you know than the Trojan you do not, I guess” (Anderson 4), which ties to the Legend of the Trojan War and her rape. The school decided on the Blue Devil, which is a fish that when it sees it's enemy they will hide or turn completely black until
Melinda had special nicknames for like her teaches and some of the students. These are the nicknames that she gave them. Mr. Neck who was Mr. Neck is the coach who is apparently in charge of hall duty between classes and who also teaches in the Social Studies Department. Hairwoman was her English teacher. Mr. Freeman is her Art teacher.”