Faithlyn Norman

Maria Silva
Read On Summary
March 30, 2015

Speak Read On Analysis

I recently finished the book Speak written by Laurie Halse Anderson, the book is realistic fiction. This
book is about a girl named Melinda Sordino who starting high school at Merryweather High School in
New York. Throughout the entire novel, Melinda is going through a lot. To try and forget about her
problems, Melinda steals late passes, hides in closets at school, cuts herself, and bites her lips - badly .
After many months of silence, Melindas parents and guidance counselor start noticing something and
try to get her to open up about her poor educational performance. On pages 113-114, Melinda has a
meeting with her parents, guidance counselor and principal. In the meeting Melindas dad says Well,
something is wrong. What have you done to her? I had a sweet loving girl last year, but as soon as she
comes up here, she clams up, skips school, and flushes her grades down the toilet. Here, Melindas
parents are noticing a change. They are noticing that something is going on with her. Throughout the
entire meeting, Melinda still doesnt say a word to noone. There is this one senior at Merryweather
High school that Melinda refers to as IT,that senior is Andy Evans. Whenever Andy sees Melinda in
the hallway at school, he annoys her in ways that makes her relive what he has done to Melinda; he
raped her, the summer before school started. Melinda is an introvert at school because everyone knows
what Andy did to her. On page 81-82 Melinda talks to herself and says ... I just want to sleep. The
whole point of not talking about it, of silencing the memory, is to make it go away. It wont. I need
brain surgery to cut it out of my head. This shows how hard Melinda wants to forget about the terrible
memory but cant. At that point in the novel, Melinda is starting to realize that being silent wont solve
anything. I would recommend this book to any teenager that likes dramatic books. This book is really
interesting and literally you would not be able to put it down.