Preview

Melinda's Change In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
175 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Melinda's Change In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson
Speak is a novel written by Laurie Halse Anderson. It is about a high school girl named Melinda Sordino who starts the year with a profound secret on her shoulders. So throughout the novel we see her deal with her academic problems, her social life, and keeping her secret hidden but eventually opening up about it. The theme of the novel is communicating with others and speaking up and out because your voice matters. Anderson uses Melinda to delineate the theme by showing how Melinda’s change hurts her but in the end shows how she grows and heals .
In Speak, Melinda becomes very taciturn. On page 113, it says, “I don’t talk...They want me to speak…Mother:...she won’t say anything! I can’t get a word out of her. She’s mute” That quote shows how

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The extremely large and descriptive book, “The way we never were” by Stephanie Coontz. She was born in late August 1944. She is an author, historian, and professor at Evergreen State College teaching history and family studies and was a Director of Research and Public Education for the Council on Contemporary Families from 2001-2004. She has authored and co-edited many books about the history of the family and marriage including “The way we never were”, “The way we really are” and many more award winning books.…

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first way Melinda shows lack of courage was at the beginning of the book, when Heather made her go to the basketball pep rally. Heather introduced her to some new people and after they took a seat somewhere in the middle. Turns out the people behind them remembers Melinda from that party in the summer where she called the cops and ran. "My brother…

    • 460 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick is a story about a sixteen-year-old Nora Grey, who lives in Maine in a small town named Coldwater. Nora lives in with her mother in a farmhouse on the outskirts of town. Nora's father had been murdered in Portland the previous year. Nora never really cared for Boys (unlike her best friend Vee) until she meets Patch and Elliot. Patch Cipriano is a fallen angel posing as a high school boy. Nora describes Patch as tall, dark and annoying. Elliot Saunders is a transfer student from Kinghorn Prep. Patch is always by Nora's side, often saving her when bad things begin to happen. Soon after Nora learns that she is the descendant of the Nephilim.( Nephilim are a race of half-angels, half-mortals) Patch needs Nora because…

    • 222 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Most people may have some form of language barrier, no matter what background they came from. Difference are what define the world around us. Whether a soft contrast of two colors or a comparison of nations, the diversity shapes our identities. In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldúa and “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, both have similar subject as they both discussed how different forms of the same language are recognized in society. They emphasize the fact that a person can unconsciously develop different ideas through a language and categorizes an individual by the way they speak. How can identity be molded by language? Language is part of one’s identity.…

    • 833 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Speaking is form of art that can either be a natural gift or a practiced talent. Much like there are several different ways a person can draw: cartooning, free hand, or realistic, there are many ways in which a person can speak. Nikki Giovanni’s speech “We Are Virginia Tech” makes people cry, rejoice, and move on. A speech is one form of art that can evoke these types of emotions from people.…

    • 1682 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    At first the controversy of this movie lies within Sarah’s unwillingness to speak because she feels that she shouldn’t have to learn to speak just because others do. She likes to be in her own world of silence because it makes her feel safe and that no one can make fun of her or hurt her there. She refuses to speak and is content just because others want her to. She refuses to…

    • 624 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    How To Stay Hydrated

    • 337 Words
    • 2 Pages

    As the weather gets warmer, staying hydrated should be a top priority. While water is the preferred method for staying hydrated in the heat for many people, it is not the only option. If you or your kids do not like drinking straight water, or if you want to add some variety to your hydration routine, consider implementing some tasty alternatives.…

    • 337 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wit by Margaret Edson

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Every student has at some point in his or her educational career had a teacher that seemed completely unreasonable and immune to any sympathy towards the student. In the play Wit by Margaret Edson the main character is Dr. Vivian Bearing who is an esteemed professor of early 17th century poetry and fits the bill of the hard-nosed stubborn professor. This character is diagnosed with cancer and the play is about her treatments and battle with the cancer that ultimately at the end of the play leads to her death. Throughout the play itself Dr. Bearing goes through many trials and tribulations and her interactions with the audience, doctors, former students, and herself all show how she goes through stages in order to come to terms with her illness.…

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For some language might be just something you speak to communicate but for others it defines who they are. Some may realize this from the start but others ponder on it after they lose that sense of belonging with their own. As we know, The United States of America, is a melting pot and with us we bring our own identity such as: language, culture, religion, and traditions. Losing any of these traits could results in losing who you are, as we read in, “Speaking In Tongues” by Zadie Smith and “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldùa.…

    • 679 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At the start of the poem, the poet uses a list to show the boy’s wide range of skills. This is show in the quote ‘’make sculptures fabulous machines invent games’’. By using the dynamic verbs make and invent we can see that the poet clearly believes in the child impressive physical capability. Moreover the word ‘’fabulous’’ highlights the fact that the reader thinks that whatever the child has made and put together is worthy of praise. This shows that the speaker is very proud of the boy.…

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Does love really have an effect on how people act? Many works of literature deal with the topic of love and reveals that love has a neutral effect, it foreshadows situations, and…

    • 360 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, characterization, setting and plot all assist in the theme. The theme is you need to speak up in order to help yourself. Anderson uses characterization to elevate the theme. Melinda is immature, which make her problem even worse. For example, Melinda acknowledges, “I almost tell them right then and there [about the rape]” (Anderson 72). Melinda foolishly tries not to tell anyone about her rape. Eventually, she learns that telling someone about the rape is doing her good and not harm, which is what the theme implies. In the same fashion,the setting is used to enhance the theme of the story. Melinda views the art room as her safe place. When her art teacher finds her crying and asks what is wrong, Melinda…

    • 293 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Writing is one of the many ways people try to understand their identity. In the book, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, by Maxine Hong Kingston, she reveals that voice, through the use of talk-stories and her words, allows her the freedom to own the independence needed to reach a closer understanding of her own identity. Talk-stories, defined by Jenessa Job in “The Woman Warrior: A Question of Genre,” are “…verbally relayed stories based upon Chinese myth and fact” (83). Kingston uses talk-story to retell her aunt, No Name Woman, and her mother, Brave Orchid’s, stories. As well, she talk-stories her life, to give readers a better understanding of her identity as an American-Chinese woman.…

    • 1567 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, known in the music world as Halsey, is a musician. She was born September, 29, 1994 to a white mother who worked as a security guard for a hospital and a biracial father who managed a car dealership. As a child growing up in Clark, New Jersey she had a fondness for music. By fourteen, she played the violin, viola, cello, and guitar. At seventeen, after a suicide attempt which lead to a seventeen-day admittance to a psychiatric hospital, Halsey was dingoes with bipolar disorder. She is famous for identifying herself as “tri-bi”, meaning bisexual, biracial, bipolar.…

    • 1251 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    , an uncensored newspaper. The children thenhave to flee the country, where they are not safe. Their Uncle Tunde arranges for themto be smuggled to London, where their Uncle Dele lives, with Mrs Bankole. Their fathershould then join them there. However, instead of finding the hoped-for safety, they areabandoned by Mrs Bankole in the middle of London, a strange city they know nothingabout.When they are found by the police, they are put into the care of Mrs Graham. Theymeet Jenny, Mama Appiah and Mr. Nathan, who try their best to help them by gettingthe children temporarily admitted in England, and by finding a new foster family forthem: Gracie and Roy King. Sade had to lie to officials about their name so as to no gether father into trouble, and the kindness displayed by the adults makes her feel guiltyabout her lies. She is also sad about Femi’s sulliness, and feels very homesick.Matters don’t improve on her first day in her new school; she feels lost in the Englisheducation system, much less harsh and demanding with students than in Nigeria. Eventhough she finds friendship and understandingwithMariam, a fellow refugee, and MrMorris, the English teacher, she starts getting bullied by Marcia, and her gang. She isforced to steal a lighter for them, for example, in Mariam’s uncle’s store, somethingthat she feels very guilty about. She starts dreading going to school, as she doesn’tknow how to deal with bullies.One day, Mama Appiah arrives at the house with good news: she has found the children’sfather, who managed to get into England thanks to a false passport. However, he was puttaken to a Detention Centre because he didn’t ask for political asylum, because he was soworried about his children. The Nigerian Police then announce that he is wanted for…

    • 348 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays