Character Analysis: Speak By Laurie Anderson

Part One: Plot Speak: Laurie Anderson. In the beginning of this book, Melinda seems like an ordinary teenager who is at a party with her friends. However, a boy soon tricks her. His name is Andy. He starts by showing interest in her. He talks and laughs with her, and also dances and kisses her. This turns very bad later on. Andy forces Melinda to have sex with him. She now has to face Andy and her ex best friends through high school.

Part Two: Character Analysis To everyone around her, Melinda was very depressed and acted like a “Debby downer.” She stopped doing a lot of things she liked. She stopped talking to her friends and she isn’t active anymore. She doesn’t do anything anymore. She lost he drive to do things. She …show more content…
In Speak, Melinda was affected by a few different cultures. Since she was constantly keeping to herself and being shy and quiet, she was a part of the loner/outsider culture. She was also a part of an artsy culture. Melinda had a big passion for art, which was here most favorite thing to do. Even though Melinda had always kept to herself, she some times had a spark of the popular culture. She used to be popular, until what happened to her, which made her shut down. During her freshman year of high school, Melinda was much of a outsider more than anything. She wasn’t very liked because of what she did as a result of Andy raping her, which was calling the police. All of the kids made fun and teased Melinda, they never bothered to ask her what happened to her. Melinda had a moment where she made a new friend, and was slightly on track of becoming popular again. Sadly, Melinda was too depressed to have a friend like her, so she went back to being an outcast. People kept thinking that Melinda was a weirdo and no one ever talked to her, not even her old friends. They were either her old popular friends or her art …show more content…
Melinda was practically kicked out of the popular culture that her friend and her friend’s boyfriend, Rachel and Andy, were involved in. She was deemed a outcast. She kept to herself most of the time and would rather choose to be alone than with another person. She stayed quiet and always had this depressed look on her face. From all of the hurt and pain she had been in, she turned to another culture, art. Mr. Freeman and Ivy helped Melinda a lot with learning how to express her feelings and not hold them in. They did that by teaching her how to use art, they helped her inner thoughts come out. These are the three types of culture embedded in