Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson: Character Analysis

“Every scar I have makes me who I am” proclaimed an anonymous author. Sometimes people make decisions that will stick with them forever, even if they don’t want it to. In the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, she writes about a teenager named Melinda who goes through a ton of drama over the summer before and during her freshman year. A boy named Andy Evans sees Melinda and comes by her. He stays with her all night. Later through the night he brings her away from everyone else and rapes her. Melinda is terrified and calls the police. Rachel, her former best friend, finds out and leaves her at the party. Rachel hates Melinda for involving the police. Melinda walks home to an empty house, refuses to speak and isolates herself from society.
Melinda’s identity was changed by her stopping talking, losing her closest friends, and becoming depressed. Before the party Melinda was a bright, energetic, bubbly teenage girl. Andy came around and she forgot all her morals. During the rape, Melinda says’ “I’m not really here, I’m definitely back at Rachel’s, crimping my hair, and gluing on fake nails, and he smells like beer and mean and he’s hurting me and he gets up, and zips his jeans and smiles” (135) The was during and after the rape. Andy scared her so much that she didn’t know what to do so she did not tell anybody and stopped talking altogether. Nevertheless before Melinda stopped talking, she called the police for help. This causes Rachel to come up and say “I hate you.” and never talk to her again. Even though calling the police wasn’t a bad thing, it left Melinda scared, afraid and alone. In conclusion she wasn’t able to tell anybody about the rape, Melinda bottled it up and never told anybody. Since Melinda didn’t tell anyone about the rape, she caused herself to become depressed. Even though Melinda has a strong identity somewhere in her, being raped was a huge turning point in her life and changed her and her