Speak essay

Speak Essay

Naomi Giancola 802

            The book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is about a girl who is raped at a party and calls the cops. She gets a lot of people arrested for being at the party and the whole school hates her. The book is about her trying to accept what happened to her at the party and trying to find the courage to tell people why she really called the cops. I think that this story is very important because in our society, if you do one wrong thing then people will judge you before they even know why you did it and its important for kids my age to know that they should never keep something that important a secret for that long because it can destroy you.

            One example of her being ignored and not accepted is when she looses her last friend; “My cafeteria strategy has changed since ii have no friends in the known universe.” Before, she had been eating with her friend but now that she has lost that friend, she is forced t eat alone and ends up going to a hospital to eat which is a little strange. I think that she goes to the hospital because she knows that no one will recognize here there so she feels safe. Another example of her being alone is, “The best place to figure this out is my closet, my throne room.” Melinda has a room, no a closet, that she goes to when ever she feels upset or is just bored with class. No one else knows about it except her and she spends most of her time in it. I think that the closet represents something a lot bigger then just a place to go. I think it represents what is going on in her head and how nobody really knows about it. I think that Melinda goes there because that closet is really her only safe place in the world.

            There are many ways that all the people at the school make fun of her and shut her out. One way is, “This way I don’t have to admit that no one invited me to go with them.” In this part of the story, Melinda’s parents had just told her that they thought she was to old to go trick-or-treating. I think that it would’ve been better if they hadn’t have said that because then they would know that no one invited Melinda and maybe help her with friends. Its also sad that no one invited Melinda to go trick-or-treating with them because in the book it says that in all the previous years, she had gone trick-or-treating with her friends. Another way that people shut her out is, “This is my mistake, thinking I belong.” In this part, Melinda had just awoken from a nap in her closet and caught the last minute of the school basketball game. She says that it was a mistake to have fun watching it because I think she feels like if someone saw her watching the game then she would ruin it for them or they would think that she was weird and creepy. I think that its really sad that she has to feel that way.

            To conclude, Melinda is treated very unfairly and I think that many kids in our society are treated like things and shammed for things that are not their fault. I think that the book portrays this scenario very well. I think that this book can and will help and a lot of kids in situations like this. Ms. Anderson does a very good job at writing this book.