The Role Of Isolation In Melinda Anderson's Speak

The title of the novel is a little bit paradoxical and ambiguous. The novel's title is called Speak; while the entire dilemma throughout the novel is that its heroine Melinda is suffering from her silence and isolation; she cannot speak of what scares her, or even to call for her rights. Her anger is revealed through inner conflicts which caused her psychological problems. In stark opposition to the title she refused to speak of what annoys her and preferred to remain silent and isolated. From the beginning she always feels that she is alone and that she does not have any friends to sit with or even to talk with, she always says "I am outcast" (Anderson 4). She always feels that she is forsaken and rejected. Melinda is not ready for the high school psychologically. She is neither ready for attending classes nor to sit with her class mates whom she is afraid of. She is angry about everything. She makes fun of her teachers as well; she called her English teacher Hairwoman (Anderson 7) as she has uncombed stringy hair flops in front of her face. As for her social studies teacher, she called him Mr. Neck as he puts whistle around his neck which is thicker than his head. All her mates fall …show more content…
She lost her best friend and her parents' troubles are getting in her nerves as well. Add the failing grades to complete Melinda's catastrophic teenage life." (Gonzales). Her anger and bad temper made her ignores her studies and then she got very bad grades. So, her parents got mad at her because of her awful reports about her grades. Her father orders her to get higher grades in a voice of threat "I'm only going to say it once. You get those grades up or your name is mud. Hear me? Get them up!" (Anderson 42). Her parents are so angry from her, so they tell her she must get tutoring from her teachers every day after school. She does stay late at school, but she spends her time in the abandoned janitor's closet she