Year taken: 2012-2013
Professor: Nereida Prado
Class: INGL3335
University: University of Puerto Rico, Cayey Campus
Essay-“Speak” Analysis and Review
With a stomachache and an awful feeling, the novel
“Speak” brings out the readers intrigue to figure out what happened to 14 year
old Melinda Sordino to make her so negative and rejected. The novel’s structure
goes in a non regular timeline where we find our little Melinda going back and
forth to what the present is and what happened in summer before school started.
With the urges to finish high school, Melinda goes from having a bad day to
having a worse one; "I hate you" (1.11) mouths who she believes was her best friend,
Rachel, who has shun her from the bond since a summer night where Melinda calls
the cops at a party where no one was suppose to tell. This earns her the hatred
and rejection from many of her peers, making her a target to many bullying
methods. Her struggle to survive is less and less with every passing page,
losing respect of anything-for example, she doesn’t call her teachers by their
names like "no face" (2.1), Mr.Neck, Hairwoman, among others- and
adding a huge desperation to be accepted and heard while she refuses to talk at
all. Her school year seems to look gloomy and depressive.
Melinda is
the main character throughout the book. She appears as weak, insecure and
constantly bringing herself down and calling out names, like “the beast in my
gut…scraping away the inside of my ribs” (51.2). She once wanted to wash her
face away. Melinda guards a secret that is destroying her from the inside out, “…She looks like she's got a disease or something"
(21.19) states a girl from The Marthas group when they talk about her lips
being all bitten up. However, she slowly grows from it and becomes the
empowering lady she needs to be, making the horrible summer time an experience
in which she can grow: "It wasn't my fault. And I'm not going to let it
kill me. I can grow."(198)
The character of Mr. Freeman is an extraordinary tool
in Melinda’s recovery. Being the stereotypical art teacher who welcomes the students
saying that his is "the only
class that will teach [them] how to survive" (4.3). Being a
person who also bottles up strong emotions and situations, he finds his escape
through painting expressing to Melinda that “when people don't express
themselves, they die one piece at a time." (122.4) He helps her to grow
throughout the painting, releasing the frustrations and agonies through art;
making it the only class she always graded an A. He doesn’t appear much in the
novel nor develops himself much through it, but it is seen in Melinda that she
appreciates his mentoring throughout the whole year. Making it so much better
for her.
Heather's
character in this novel is the new who desperately wants to fit in. She becomes
friends with Melinda sometime later, after she stops seeing her as "the
dog that keeps jumping into your lap..." (24). She is constantly cheery
but pushy with Melinda, however she only acknowledge her social status more
than the somewhat friendship they had, ditching Sordino’s relationship to
escalate higher in the school’s cliques. Heather is the opposite of Melinda
throughout the novel, from personality wise to developing from a good to a
negative way at the end of the story, unlike our main character.
Hairwoman is
a teacher Melinda gets in her ninth grade, stating her unsuccessful tries to
make the students eager to learn makes Sordino’s pityness to arise. There is a
part of the novel where she believes she’s becoming as pathetic as her, making
Hairwoman look quite sad in the reader’s eyes. However, she symbolizes the
changes of Melinda’s attitude throughout the year, not only we find the
positivity rising in Melinda, but we see it portrayed in Hairwoman’s physique.
Changing from a sorry old woman to a bright being, that would put a smile on
Melinda’s face by just seeing her pretty and well dressed.
Rachel was
Melinda’s best friend before the party incident. However, for her to be for 9
years and not be able to deal with the whole cop call is something that puts
the reader in doubt of any real friendship. It puts the reader in the same
situation when it is revealed to her that her current boyfriend, Andy Evans is
Melinda’s rapist. She believes this is all made up by her and prefers to shun
her, leaving more doubts to where the relation she had with Sordino was ever
true enough for her. Her relationship with Andy, who besides Melinda’s
depression and low self-esteem, is the main antagonist of the story, blinds out
any doubts of him until prom night; where it is said they break up for
inappropriate touching from his part. We never see a reconciliation with Melinda
and her old friends.
Andy Evans
is the most hated, obnoxious and dangerous character throughout the novel. Not
only was he the rapist, but also the one who tormented Melinda over and over
again through the school year from calling her "Freshmeat" (42.3) from trying to rape her again to silence
her (88). Evans had been victimizing girls in school, but no one had ever stood
up to speak against him. He is the force that keeps Sordino down, seeing him as
a strong presence she cannot wash away from. However, Melinda is able to face
her attacker and silence him through the course of the novel; finally giving
her the push she needed to overcome that hurtful experience and grow for the
better.
Dave
Petrakis on the other hand, becomes Melinda’s hero (31.7) when he stands up in front of the class to Mr.
Neck’s empowering statement of his son not getting his dream job because of
foreigners living in the US and taking people’s jobs. He states his knowledge
saying that "The Constitution does not recognize different classes of
citizenship based on time spent living in the country. […] As a student, I am
protesting the tone of this lesson as racist, intolerant and xenophobic"
(27.22). His relation with Melinda, who becomes his lab partner, grows
throughout her struggle making her worthy of stand her own ground and fighting
for what she believes.
The novel is made to create conscience in a harsh
realistic way. It was not made to be a commercial success, but to be taken
serious and to act and help when situations like this are put in our lives or
someone else’s. Laurie Halse Anderson makes it clear that these situation are
part of the teenage drama and this cannot be over looked nor censored because
it is the cruel reality of many out there. “Speak” has been banned in schools
for its harsh descriptions, making many to think it is immoral to teach or
quite pornographic. Anderson deals with this stating that “censoring books that
deal with difficult, adolescent issues does not protect anybody. Quite the
opposite. It leaves kids in the darkness and makes them vulnerable. Censorship
is the child of fear and the father of ignorance. Our children cannot afford to
have the truth of the world withheld from them.” Many of Anderson’s fans have
written down to her many of their dark stories thanks to this novel, stating
over again that these things do happen and they need to be act upon for
teenagers to find themselves again and rise from the ashes they lie on.
The novel invites the reader to see a harsh truth, to
explore others’ minds and make them find a stand to what they believe is right
and just. The constant suspense makes us crave for more and more, leading us
from clues to full memories of what Melinda had to go through and what made her
become the person she was. However, once she finds her inner strength she
overcomes that fragile image of herself and blooming to a determined teenager
who will survive high school and life. “Speak” states for those who want to
become teachers, like me, that we need to listen to others, to worry about our
students and make them see their beauty. For everything we say or don’t say can
either scar them or make them.
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