Review Of The Book 'Speak' By Andy Evens

Decent Essays
Speak Essay (rough draft)
After being sexualy assulted by Andy Evens, Malinda Sordino had a hard time communicating with anyone and had a rough start to high school. Malinda lost all of her friends and the hope of finding future friends because she called the police while at the party. She spends most of her time alone because her parents don’t notice that she is depressed and in need of help. Many people who go through such a traumatic event often cannot talk to anyone about what happened.
In the beginning of the book Melinda was just starting to show the symptoms of going through a traumatic event. She is starting to detach more from her parents than before. She is also showing a number of signs of depression. She isolates herself in a confined

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    In this period, which is called the dead phase, any voice that Melinda might have gained while she was confused, was lost, due to the crushing weight of being dumped by the one friend she had the entire year, Heather. During this time Thanksgiving was coming around, and her family was becoming stressed, which was taking its toll on Melinda’s emotional state. After Thanksgiving was over, Melinda saved the turkey bones, and brought them to school to make a sculpture. Mr. Freeman had seen the pain that was going on inside of Melinda, through the sculpture’s dead and frightening look, there was also a palm tree that was half melted stuck right in the center of the sculpture, that might represent her broken innocence, or most likely her desire to tell someone about her experience, but it is entrapped within her soul, and the voice is trying to be heard so desperately, that is has to be bright, and shine through the darkness of what is going on in Melinda’s life. As she sees this as a sign, she decides that she will tell someone about what has…

    • 1120 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Charecter Is Inhumane

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages

    She was raped and it silencted her. She tried as hard as she could not to draw attentin to herself. Melinda felt dead inside. She felt like it was her fault even though it wasn't. Over the course of the book she meets charecters along the way of her school year.…

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Melinda Sordino’s behaviors are best diagnosed as posttraumatic stress disorder with a secondary disorder of depression. Melinda’s symptoms last for a whole school year, which is consistent with the one month bench mark for most posttraumatic stress disorder patients. One of Melinda’s symptoms of her posttraumatic stress disorder is that multiple times throughout the book she bites her lips and nails to the point of pain and even sometimes until she bleeds. At one point in the story, she even says, “I pull my lower lip all the way in between my teeth. If I try hard enough, maybe I can gobble my whole self this way”.…

    • 815 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Though eventually she disproves this to herself, most of the book she believed this. Melinda made it a point not to talk to anyone, avoiding every opportunity to talk. When her ‘fake friend’ Heather asks her for her to do a countless number of things that benefit only Heather, she shuts her trap and goes along with all of it. Until towards the end, when Melinda once and for all throws Heather to the curb, this treatment hurts Melinda even more. Subconsciously Melinda knows Heather is using her, she goes along with it in fear of appearing friendless.…

    • 850 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Speak Character Analysis

    • 689 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Speak is a coming-of-age novel about 14-year-old Melinda Sordino as she struggles with the weight of her pain as a victim of rape. Melinda is a fictional character; yet, for thousands of other girls in the world, her experiences are a vivid reality. Although I have not shared her experience, as long as there is someone that is able to relate to Melinda, I believe that Speak is a realistic representation of adolescent experience. Rape crimes are far more common than people believe it to be. According to the survey done by the National Institute of Justice, one in six American women have been the victim of an attempted or completed rape .…

    • 689 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the novel, Melinda did not know that she can be brave and confident enough to talk and shout for help. She does not know that she is capable of fighting back, yet in the end, she realized she fought back and shouted for help. It shows us that she just have to be strong and start to speak up because if she wasn’t strong and loud nobody could have heard her and she was raped again by Andy Evans. We should believe in ourselves and be strong because if we won’t we might just be in trouble or people won’t know what our backstory…

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When Melinda starts high school, she is looked down upon, because she broke up the party. Only one girl wished to be her friend, Heather from Ohio. Heather is probably Melinda's only friend during the first marking period until they break up. Heather thought that they were "too different”. Melinda's depression became worse after the break up.…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Now, Melinda begins to turn into a person able to speak up for herself, like when she says no to help Heather, and is healing. Too busy growing into a better person, Melinda doesn’t have time to deal with Heather’s minor problems. Melinda is finally able to speak her true emotions, since she feels empowered from her major…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Since the father, John ruins her plans of having a perfect family, she tries to create a more positive effect on their relationship so she eventually, can have a perfect family but later in the text she relizes that her life can’t be perfect, it has to include approximations. Throughout the text, Simpson shows us that Melinda is maturing. “I loved him blindly, the feeling darkening over everything, but it…

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In the memoir, My Beloved World, By Sonia Sotomayor, she speaks about the ongoing hardships of growing up in a world that seems to only push you down. Sonia rose above it all, she had the strength to continue on. She speaks of the several hardships she faced throughout her life such as a poor home life, chronic illnesses, anxiety and stress, and just the disadvantages of growing up as a person on Latina descent. In the starting pages of the novel, you get a glimpse into her chaotic world.…

    • 1674 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Social Therapy Case Study

    • 1251 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Introduction Ian is an eighteen year old male, referred by the Juvenile Justice system for therapeutic counseling due to his conviction as a sexual offender. As a social worker reading Ian case file, Ian’s case history starts after his mother’s death when he was five-years old. Ian’s sister and her husband moved into the family home to assist Ian’s father with his care. While in the home, Ian’s brother-n-law murdered his 18-month old daughter, Ian’s niece. Ian mistakenly confessed to the crime because he hit his niece earlier with a toy.…

    • 1251 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Tree Symbolism

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Finally at the end of the book her tree sheds it’s dead branches and is able to live again. This also happen in real life in her front yard to symbolize that Melinda can share to the world not just her sketchpad. Another reason that she can share through her drawings is that the art teacher, Mr. Freeman, because he is the only one really trying to figure out what is going on in Melinda’s head. That’s why at the end he is the one she finally tells her whole story of her pain…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Because of the snowball in her throat, she froze and could not get out what she wanted to say. That could have been her chance to tell her parents everything about what happened at the summer party. All of her problems would have been solved if the snowball in her throat was not there, which is why it is so crucial to speak, but by the end of the school year, the ice in Melinda’s throat melts freeing her voice. Mr. Freeman, Melinda’s art teacher, is with Melinda on the last day of school which is when “[Melinda] [tells] [Mr. Freeman] about [the summer party]” (Anderson 198). This is a good part of the story where Melinda finally talks about what had happened to her at the summer party.…

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine defines Rape Trauma Syndrome as a mental health disorder that describes a range of symptoms often experienced by someone who has undergone a severely traumatic event. In Speak, a novel by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character is a victim of rape and shows the symptoms of Rape Trauma Syndrome otherwise known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The main character, Melinda, is isolated by her school and friends, which leads to her slow healing process. Without having someone to talk to, Melinda became lost and confused. She avoided talking about her feelings with everyone that tried to get emotionally close to her.…

    • 2628 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When was your first time being someone who you are not? Everyone in society has a different personality that identifies themselves with those they love and those they are not close with. Think about the hardship that you have to go through and became who you are now. Throughout your process of overcoming the abstracts, you are learning something new. The power that you are working towards is language.…

    • 1176 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays