Student Question
What is Melinda's attitude toward cheerleaders in Speak?
Quick answer:
Melinda's attitude toward cheerleaders is one of disdain and resentment. She views them as privileged hypocrites who present a facade of virtue while engaging in morally questionable behavior. Melinda perceives them as living dual lives—model students and citizens in one, and reckless, promiscuous individuals in another. Her strong dislike leads her to fantasize about forming an "Anti-Cheerleaders" group, highlighting her deep-seated aversion and sense of alienation from them.
Melinda Sordino is portrayed as an outcast who remains isolated from her former friends and peers after suffering a traumatic incident the summer before her freshman year of high school. As a freshman, Melinda struggles to assimilate with the other students and be accepted into a genuine peer group.
In the first marking period, Melinda elaborates on her hatred of the Merryweather cheerleaders. Melinda views the cheerleaders as privileged hypocrites; they are often viewed as virtuous young women, but they are actually promiscuous girls with no morals. Melinda rants about their dual personalities and compares the cheerleaders' lives to living in two separate universes. In one universe, the cheerleaders are model citizens and straight-A students, revered by the faculty and local parents. In another universe, the cheerleaders behave like unscrupulous drunks who sleep with every football player.
Overall, Melinda feels that the cheerleaders are hypocrites and absolutely detests them. She even says,
If I ever form my own clan, we'll be the Anti-Cheerleaders. We will not sit in the bleachers. We will wander underneath them and commit mild acts of mayhem.
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