Speak Character Analysis

Laurie Halse Anderson's novel Speak has won multiple awards and is recognized for its raw and powerful story of Melinda, the protagonist. Melinda is a ninth grade rape victim, who is sexually assaulted by a senior student at her high school in the summer between her eighth and ninth grade school years. The trauma of the rape causes Melinda to lose her voice that would allow her to speak out about the event, so instead she spends a majority of her ninth grade school year silenced. It is only when her rapist attempts to attack her again that Melinda finally finds the voice that allows her to say NO. Through standing up to her biggest fear, her assaulter, Melinda finds her true self that had been hidden in her depression and sets on a path of
Melinda's low self esteem can be seen in the novel Speak through the metaphors and symbols that she uses for herself. While at school, Melinda tries to avoid her peers as much as possible. She even skips school many times. Despite the attempts Melinda makes to be invisible, she encounters her rapist, a senior student
Because of the trauma Melinda went through, she is unable to face herself, both mentally and literally. Melinda is shown multiple times to purposely avoid mirrors when she is able to. In one of the first instances of Melinda avoiding mirrors, Melinda looks at her reflection in her bedroom mirror. She is dissatisfied with just about everything she observes, from her messy hair to her lips, which are bruised and cut from constant chewing. Unable to deal with her self image yet, Melinda resolves to remove the reflective surface altogether. "I get out of bed and take down the mirror. I put it in the back of my closet, facing the wall" (Anderson 17). Melinda's rejection of mirrors is symbolism for how Melinda cannot face herself. Melinda feels guilty about being raped, despite being a victim, and her feelings are reflected back at her in mirrors, so she refuses to face them. When Melinda is setting up her hideaway in the janitor's closet, she removes the reflective surface there as well. "The first thing to go is the mirror. It is screwed to the wall, so I cover it with a poster of Maya Angelou that the librarian gave me" (Anderson 50). Even the poster that Melinda replaces the mirror with has meaning. Maya Angelou was a rape survivor, who spends a period of her life in silence because of guilt, just like Melinda. Melinda admires Maya for her strength and