Archetypes And Allusions In Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak

Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a story written in the first person about a young girl named Melinda Sordino. The title of the book, Speak, is ironically based on the fact that Melinda chooses not to speak. The book is written in the form of a monologue in the mind of Melinda, a teenage introvert. This story depicts the story of a very miserable freshman year of high school. Although there are several people in her high school, Melinda secludes herself from them all. There are several people in her school that used to be her friend in middle school, but not anymore. Not after what she did over the summer. What she did was call the cops on an end of summer party on of her friends was throwing. Although

Speak, a novel by Laurie Halse Anderson, is about named Melinda caught up in the high school chaos trying to find a way to tell everyone what happened to her over the summer. Heather, a new kid from Ohio who becomes friends with Melinda leaves her to be part of a group known as “The Marthas”. Heather is bubbly, determined, and egocentric.

In the novel Speak, the author uses the protagonist, Melinda, to teach the reader the importance of verbal expression. Melinda refuses to speak up about an event that occurred in her life; therefore her classmates cannot show empathy towards her. Melinda never spoke up about why she did what she had done during an event in her life, so people judge and bully Melinda for her decisions. Melinda’s silence slowly erodes her self esteem and leaves her alone to handle her depressive behavior and decisions.

Speak tells the story of Melinda Sordino and the events that effect the way she is viewed by the students at Merryweather High School. Melinda experienced a disturbing and dreadful incident while becoming an upcoming freshman or aka “fresh meat”. That summer was the worst summer ever for Melinda and the school year was not any better at all for her. People judged her in many ways than they should’ve without knowing what actually happened. They judged her to the point she had absolutely no friends and was not able to ask anybody for help.

Speak, a novel by Laurie Halse Anderson, portrays the struggles of high school through the eyes of freshman Melinda Sordino, as she makes her way through cliques and clubs after she being raped at a party by an upperclassman. Anderson discusses many topics throughout the novel, including fear from the past and loneliness. Laurie Halse Anderson uses metaphors and mood to illustrate the idea that past experiences can cause overpowering fear that affects our behavior and attitude in the present. Laurie Halse Anderson uses metaphors to illustrate Firstly, Laurie Halse Anderson uses metaphors to show how Melinda’s fear from the past affects her in the present. She uses these metaphors many times throughout the book, showing how Melinda’s fear

Throughout this fragment of Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson portrays Melinda with an introvertive voice. Melinda is having a hard time warming up to her new high school. The excerpt starts off with Melinda trying to find a place to sit in the lunchroom. “There’s that new girl, Heather, reading by the window. I could sit across from her. Or I could crawl behind a trash can.” (Paragraph 2) Melinda would rarther hide and go unnoticed than interact with other students. This quote shows us that she’s willing to take great measures to avoid being observed. Another example of diction was when Melinda was seen without a hallway pass by Mr. Neck, and when she was asked to explain herself, she just thinks to herself: “It is easier to not say anything… Nobody

In Speak, the author, Laurie Halse Anderson uses imagery to portray Christmas as a positive event for the main character, Melinda Sordino. Melinda has a distant relationship with her parents due to the fact that she often feels ignored by them. On Christmas Day, her parents “…give [her] a handful of gift certificates, a TV for [her] room, ice skates, and a sketch bag with charcoal pencils. They say they have noticed [her] drawing. [She] almost [tells] them right then and there. Tears flood [her] eyes. They noticed [she’s] been trying to draw. They noticed” (Anderson 72). This quote is significant because it reflects steps of improvement in their parent to child relationship. Since Melinda withdrawals herself from the attention of her parents,

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is a book about high school. The “best years of your life.” Unfortunately, Melinda Sordino experienced high school differently. Beginning the year with no friends, because she called the cops during a summer party, because she got raped. Speak by Anderson was a good read, but it wasn’t a good book. There was multiple things you could have done to make this a better book.

Speak, written by Laurie Halse Anderson is about a girl named Melinda who is starting her freshman year of high school with a memory that has continuously haunted her since the summer. Melinda was involved in a rape and has been emotionally and physically affected by this traumatic incident. With her friends and family having no knowledge of what happened, Melinda is forced to find her own way to cope with it. In the novel Speak, Anderson shows the readers that art creates a feeling of personal fulfillment, self-discovery and relaxation by using point of view and symbolism.

Speak was written by Laurie Halse Anderson and published in 1999. It is written from the point of view of Melinda, a high school freshmen whose world got turned upside down after a traumatic summer event. The story follows Melinda through 9th grade as she deals with depression, PTSD, and social exclusion and learns about standing up for herself. The theme of Speak is to stand up for yourself. This is clear because if Melinda had stood up for herself the first time, she wouldn’t have been raped and Andy Evans wouldn’t have continued to target her.

The contemporary classic novel Speak, profounds a girl, Melinda Sordino, entering freshman year at Merryweather High School in Syracuse, New York, with a heavy secret weighing on her. Unlike regular students, Melinda isolates herself from the society after a devastating event that she had experienced. Through her perspective, we enter her world of depression as she struggles her way through the school year. From her eyes we see the way she sees life, hear the ways others described her and enter her mind on how she thinks of the world. On a journey of gaining back herself, bad things turn worse, as that one person enters her life again. ‘It’, who made her fall into misery, ‘It’ who destroyed her once happy life. Melinda fights not only with herself, but It, the school, the world. The only thing that she feels comfortable in doing is art, where she drew trees to Anderson will definitely make you laugh throughout her book, however along holds undeniable sadness as we watch Melinda heals her way through her trauma that doesn’t seem to leave her.

Melinda Sordino, the antagonist and narrator of the novel Speak written by Laurie Halse Anderson, is faced with isolation because of the trauma she experiences with her rape, the fact that her rapist attends her school, and because she is shunned by all of her peers. The summer before her ninth grade year, Melinda and her friends attend a high school party. She is raped at the party by a senior named Andy Evans, and immediately after she called the police. Before the cops arrived and busted the party Melinda left, causing everyone to believe Melinda was trying to get everyone in trouble.

Peer pressure can influence teenagers because they can do the activities the other people because they want to be popular and make their friends happy. What I think Laurie Halse Anderson,the author of ‘’Speak,’’ is saying that a teenager will will do anything to be cool and have friends.

“It is my nightmare and I can’t wake up. It sees me. It smiles, it winks.” This quote is said in Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel Speak by the main character Melinda Sordino. Speak is a story about Melinda in her first year of high school and her traumatizing summer before. Andersons novel shows a young girl that struggles with acceptance of peers and overcoming the fear of speaking out.

Books come in all genres, lengths, and styles. Realistic fiction chapter books offer the most depth and insight into the real world. They often cover the good and the bad in the world, which can be left out in other genres of literature. One such book is Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson which was originally published in 1999. This book has won many awards and has been named to the top of many honor lists. Some of these honors include a Michael L. Printz Honor Book, a Booklist Editor’s Choice, a National Book Award Finalist, and a New York Times Bestseller. This book follows the story of Melinda during her freshman year of high school. She has a rough time in school due to her depression which started after she was sexually assaulted at a party