The novel Speak has many relevant subjects in 2016, the book covers a wide range of topics such as Bullying, friendship, consent and more.
- The topics from the book that relate to teenagers the most in 2016 are bullying, friendship and relationship with parents.
An examination of bullying, friendship and consent will demonstrate how this book understands and represents social issues in 2016.
First off Bullying is a prevalent subject in 2016. In 2015 one of every 4 teenagers reported being bullied during the school years. In the book bullying is a prevalent subject as well, Melinda gets bullied by most of her classmates and friends. The way Speak covers bullying is very real, at least for the age group of the characters. …show more content…
At the beginning of the book Melinda states ‘’The kids behind me laugh so loud I know they’re laughing about me.’’ [Pg 4] the people who were laughing at Melinda were her classmates and Rachel Bruin. After making eye contact with Melinda Rachel the whispers ‘’ I hate you.’’ [Pg. 5] Rachel then continues to talk trash about Melinda with her group of friends. ‘’ She turns her back to me and laughs to her friends.’’ [Pg. 5] bullying like this is common in 2016 and this book shows how damaging it could really be. From personal experience this book has a good representation of what its like being the butt of everyone’s jokes. Teens now are more commonly exposed to at least some kind of bullying and are able to relate easily to