Anderson,
L.H. (1999). Speak. NY: Farrar Straus Giroux
The summer before her freshman year of high school, Melinda
Sordino meets senior Andy Evans at a high school party. During the party,
Andy rapes Melinda. In shock, Melinda calls 9-1-1, but does not know
what to say and runs home. The police come and break up the party, and some
people are arrested. Melinda does not tell anyone what happened to her.
When she returns to school in the fall, she is shunned. She has no friends left, everyone bullies her
or ignores her. Melinda is finally befriended
by Heather, a girl who is new to the community. Heather, being an upbeat, and
bubbly person, realizes that Melinda is depressed and an outcast and she doesn’t
want them to spend time together anymore. Heather is also worried about her
image and social life and wants to be in one of the “in” groups. Being friends
with Melinda isn’t going to get her there.
As Melinda's depression deepens, she begins to skip school and
withdraws from her already distant parents and other authority figures. They think her silence as means of getting
"attention".
Melinda slowly befriends her lab partner, David Petrakis. She
sees David as strong-someone who stands up for himself. She is drawn to him because he begins to encourage
her to speak up for herself.
Near the end of the book, Melinda's decides to tell her ex-best
friend Rachel what really happened to her at the party. Rachel is dating Andy and
he invites her to the senior prom and Melinda is worried. Rachel breaks up with him on prom night
because of what Melinda told her. Andy realizing
only one person could've told Rachel, so he attacks Melinda in the abandoned
janitor's closet Melinda had turned into her own special hiding place. Melinda fights back against Andy and is able
to get help in time. When word spreads about what happened and the truth about
that night is revealed, other girls begin to open up about what kind of person
Andy is. The students no longer treat
Melinda as an outcast but as a hero instead.
The school year is almost over, and Melinda knows summer school
is in her future. On the last day of school, Melinda talks with Mr. Freeman,
her art teacher and the only adult that never gave up on her. She tells him her story and finally regains
her voice.
When I first began reading this book, I thought to myself, “this
is just a story about the daily life of a teenager. Why is this book so special?” As the book progressed, I realized that
something was really wrong with her and I wanted to find out what happened at
the party. I believe this is a cleaver tactic by the author to draw you
in. I ended up loving the book and I
want my teenage daughters to read it.
Trees and other plants are major symbols in this book. They
represent life and new beginnings. Melinda
is assigned to make a tree into art in art class. She begins with portraying her artistic trees
as dead. That mirrors her own feelings
of being dead inside.
As the story progresses, she begins to focus on gardening in her
own yard. As spring blossoms, she
cleans, digs, plants, and makes her yard look alive. The oak tree in the yard must have its dead
limbs cut so it can live. This is the “slap
in the face” that Melinda needs. She
sees that the dead part can be trimmed, and the tree will come to life. Her dead part that needed to be trimmed is her
opening up about being raped. Once she
does, she begins to heal.
There is so much more about the book that I could write about. There
is more symbolism that runs all through the story. I could discuss how PTSD can affect people
other than soldiers returning from war.
I could discuss how sorry all of the adults are in this story by not recognizing
that something is wrong with that young lady, but this is a blog post, not a
paper.
I found a neat study guide for this book, created by a teacher
named Jenifer Smith. It is geared
towards young adults and their interest.
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