Speak

At first, it seems like this is a straightforward question. As other Educators have already laid out, there appears to be a series of events that have to take place for Speak to make sense. Without...

Mr. Freeman gives Melinda a ride to the store and begins talking to her about art. When Melinda tells Mr. Freeman that she doesn't know what he means when he says that she needs to put more emotion...

In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the narrator, Melinda Sordino, experiences several forms of depression as well as, quite possibly, dissociation. After Melinda experiences an immensely...

Theme statements should describe an argument, or the author's stance on a certain topic presented in the novel. A theme statement regarding the topic of communication in Speak might be: "The theme...

The never-ending mascot fight is one of the many aspects of high school that leave Melinda feeling jaded about the whole high school experience. The mascot is first mentioned on the second page of...

Melinda's dry humor is illustrated in this statement, especially in the understated commentary, "roar":"the school board has come out against calling us the Devils. We are now the...

Describing Melinda's relationship with her parents could be summarized in the word "fractured." The relationship between Melinda and her parents is a fragmented one. They seem more concerned...

The opening scene and the scene in which Melinda confronts Andy would be two moments in Speak that can be explored through written analysis. In the book's opening scene, Melinda challenges the...

Speak is the story of Melinda, a freshman at Merryweather High School, who is carrying around a secret from the summer. She has lost touch with all of her former friends, and only refers to the...

During the 2nd marking period, in chapter 47, Melinda unexpectedly sees Andy in a donut shop. Melinda thinks to herself, Maybe he won’t notice me if I stand still. That’s how rabbits survive; they...

Melinda's parents' meeting with the principal and guidance counselor of Merryweather High demonstrates the failings of the school system to help kids in intense situations like Melinda's. Everyone...

The first physical description of Melinda emphasizes her lips, which are in bad condition because she is continually biting them. As a traumatized adolescent girl who has been sexually assaulted,...

Melinda is a freshman in high school in the book Speak, so she has multiple teachers that specialize in a subject rather than a single classroom teacher that is a generalist in many subjects. Speak...

Ah, the friendship that was doomed to fail. Even though Melinda and Heather have very different personalities and goals, they were thrown together (by Heather) at the beginning of the year, due to...

At the beginning of her freshman year, Melinda Sordino is ostracized for calling the police to a party the previous summer after she was raped by Andy Evans. Melinda is traumatized by the...

In Speak, the character of Melinda uses numerous allusions. This figure uses a reference to a place, past event, cultural trait, or literary work, allowing the reader to make a connection. usually...

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson takes place in Syracuse, New York. This is mentioned in the first chapter of the novel when Melinda tells us: The sun doesn't shine much in Syracuse, so the art room...

A hyperbole is a figure of speech that involves an exaggeration to emphasize a point. Melinda Sordino continually uses hyperboles throughout the novel and is depicted as a relatively sarcastic,...

After her traumatic experience with Andy, who forces himself onto her and rapes her, at the party, Melinda cannot stand to look at herself in a mirror. Whenever she sees a mirror and catches a...

The first quote I think is reflective of Melinda is the following quote: Maybe I'll be an artist when I grow up. It's a good quote for Melinda because art class is one of the few classes Melinda...

In some ways, Melinda’s third quarter could be considered her rock bottom; however, there are moments when readers do see Melinda making effort to work through her emotional trauma. This section of...

While frustrated by her English teacher's search for symbolism, Melinda makes an almost immediate identification with Hawthorne's work. She recognizes that what Hester endures is similar to her...

Melinda seeks places that will allow her to be anonymous. She finds the old unused janitor's closet and makes it her hideout. When she first enters it, she recognizes that no one has used it for...

Melinda stays silent due to trauma and fear. The summer before entering high school, Melinda was sexually assaulted at a house party. She ends up calling the police which causes her peers to hate...

Maya Angelou's novel, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, is often characterized as a work of autobiographical fiction. Angelou's novel is based on Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem Sympathy where he talks...

Melinda discovers the janitor's closet at her school when she's trying to hide from her social studies teacher, Mr. Neck. She looks around and realizes that it's an old and abandoned place that is...

Speak, a young adult novel, was written by Laurie Halse Anderson and published in 1999. It tells the story of Melinda Sordino, a fourteen-year-old high school student who is struggling with life...

The resolution of Melinda's narrative is an empowering one. Melinda learns to assert her voice both internally and externally. She no longer blames herself for the assault and anything that...

Melinda dislikes mirrors because she dislikes her reflection; the person she sees in the mirror is not her old self but someone who is broken and damaged, someone she believes is undeserving of...

In Speak, Mr. Freeman, the art teacher, fills an old globe with pieces of paper. He tells everyone to pull a piece of paper out of the globe. He has written a word on each piece of paper and wants...

The man versus society conflict that occurs throughout the story involves Melinda Sordino's struggle to assimilate with her peers as a freshman in high school. After Melinda was raped at a party...

I don't think that it can be said that Melinda changes as a student over the course of the novel. When the novel starts, Melinda is on her way to the first day of high school. Her first quarter...

Melinda, the narrator of the young adult novel Speak, describes her English teacher as follows: My English teacher has no face. She has uncombed stringy hair that droops on her shoulders. The hair...

The tree is an important object from Speak that has symbolic meaning. The tree is very important to Melinda's freshman year. When Mr. Freeman asks students to pull random pieces of paper that will...

Speak begins with a central mystery: what happened to Melinda? She is ostracized from her high school community for calling the police to bust a party over the summer, and she feels like she can't...

The most obvious answer to your question is a director has the right to manipulate a text. Unfortunately, this happens a lot and angers many readers. That being said, your question could be...

The novel has a mood or tone of anxiety and tension, interspersed with fear, resignation and then relief. The complexity of the mood of the novel reflects the difficult challenges Melinda faces in...

The book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is what we call a bildungsroman. This word translates to a coming-of-age tale, meaning a story that focuses on the main character's emotional, physical, and...

The person who helps Melinda most as she seeks to uncover her voice is her art teacher, Mr. Freeman. Unlike the other adults in the novel, Mr. Freeman is free-spirited, sensitive, and honest. He...

Melinda's mental issues are beginning to affect her physically - we call this psychosomatic. She describes the physical difficulty she has with speaking in this section of the text- My throat is...

In the novel Speak, the main character Melinda Sordino becomes the victim of sexual assault at a party after 8th grade. By the beginning of 9th grade, she finds herself a social outcast and an...

When the protagonist of Speak, Melinda, sees a card on her locker on Valentine's Day, she feels conflicted. At first, she thinks it must be someone playing a trick on her and for a second even...

In Laurie Halse Anderson's novel Speak, the main character, Melinda, has few adults that she likes and can trust in her life. One of the reasons that her art teacher, Mr. Freeman, makes this list...

In Laurie Halse Anderson's novel Speak, art class is one of the few places Melinda feels comfortable. It is even a place where she can begin to express herself through her art. It shouldn't be...

A symbol in Speak is the Ho-Ho. It symbolizes the cruelty of other students who call Melinda a “ho.” On the first day of school, Melinda gets accosted with a Ho-Ho wrapper on the bus. It...

The fourth marking period contains much of the rising action, the climax, and the resolution of the novel Speak. The PTA gets upset about the new "Hornet" school mascot (mostly because of the...