Forced Silence
Imagine walking down the hallway at school, alone. Then you pass him. The person who treated you so poorly, so terribly. The person who committed an act of selfishness, of terror. The person who treated you like you weren’t human, as if you had no feelings or thoughts. The person who raped you. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, about 20 million out of 112 million women in the United States have been raped in their lifetime. Out of these 20 million women, only 16% of these rapes were reported to law enforcement. Why? Because these people are afraid to tell anyone. They have no one who they can really trust and they feel alone and afraid. In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda, the protagonist, was …show more content…
Most children in society look up to their parents as role models, someone to be like when they’re older and mature. Not Melinda. Melinda’s parents, like Heather, have no idea that the rape ever happened. They only see Melinda to be a girl who never opens her mouth, cuts school, gets terrible grades, and has no friends. They don’t see the girl who was raped. “If a suicide attempt is a cry for help, then what is this? A whimper, a peep?....It looks like I arm-wrestled a rosebush. Mom sees the wrist at breakfast. Mom: ‘I don’t have time for this, Melinda.’ She says suicide is for cowards.” (Anderson, 87-88) In this quote, Melinda cuts herself, because she can’t handle her inner pain and needs to move that pain to another part of her body. Her mother notices her arm the next day and becomes angry. Unlike other parents, who would’ve asked their daughter what was wrong and got her the help she needed, Melinda’s mom simply said, “I don’t have time for this,” as if Melinda was a bother, a mistake. As if she never wanted to have Melinda as a child and that she was a waste of time. She can see how her parents feel about her. If her parents genuinely wanted to help her, Melinda would have told them about the rape, and therefore wouldn’t be so depressed throughout the year because she would have someone to talk …show more content…
She shows self-hatred and pain by cutting, excluding herself from the society at school, making no attempts to replace the friends she lost, and by not speaking to her parents or anyone else. This behavior, although it seems exclusive in the eyes of her parents and supervisors, is quite common for anyone who is depressed. “Depressed children reported significantly higher level of hopelessness, lower general self-esteem, and lower coping skills than non-depressed children. Their ability to be unable to cope with stress can lead to fewer and less adaptive coping techniques.” (Asarnow, Carlson, & Guthrie, 1987) This study shows that children who have depression have high levels of self-hatred, and hopelessness and lower levels of coping skills, thus making it harder for them to make and keep friends and love themselves. This study relates to Melinda in a large way, because as I’ve said before, she struggled to find genuine friends who really cared about her, and after a while, she gave up altogether. However, if Melinda were to find a group of friends who cared about her and loved her, she would’ve been happier and more optimistic on
Imagine walking down the hallway at school, alone. Then you pass him. The person who treated you so poorly, so terribly. The person who committed an act of selfishness, of terror. The person who treated you like you weren’t human, as if you had no feelings or thoughts. The person who raped you. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, about 20 million out of 112 million women in the United States have been raped in their lifetime. Out of these 20 million women, only 16% of these rapes were reported to law enforcement. Why? Because these people are afraid to tell anyone. They have no one who they can really trust and they feel alone and afraid. In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda, the protagonist, was …show more content…
Most children in society look up to their parents as role models, someone to be like when they’re older and mature. Not Melinda. Melinda’s parents, like Heather, have no idea that the rape ever happened. They only see Melinda to be a girl who never opens her mouth, cuts school, gets terrible grades, and has no friends. They don’t see the girl who was raped. “If a suicide attempt is a cry for help, then what is this? A whimper, a peep?....It looks like I arm-wrestled a rosebush. Mom sees the wrist at breakfast. Mom: ‘I don’t have time for this, Melinda.’ She says suicide is for cowards.” (Anderson, 87-88) In this quote, Melinda cuts herself, because she can’t handle her inner pain and needs to move that pain to another part of her body. Her mother notices her arm the next day and becomes angry. Unlike other parents, who would’ve asked their daughter what was wrong and got her the help she needed, Melinda’s mom simply said, “I don’t have time for this,” as if Melinda was a bother, a mistake. As if she never wanted to have Melinda as a child and that she was a waste of time. She can see how her parents feel about her. If her parents genuinely wanted to help her, Melinda would have told them about the rape, and therefore wouldn’t be so depressed throughout the year because she would have someone to talk …show more content…
She shows self-hatred and pain by cutting, excluding herself from the society at school, making no attempts to replace the friends she lost, and by not speaking to her parents or anyone else. This behavior, although it seems exclusive in the eyes of her parents and supervisors, is quite common for anyone who is depressed. “Depressed children reported significantly higher level of hopelessness, lower general self-esteem, and lower coping skills than non-depressed children. Their ability to be unable to cope with stress can lead to fewer and less adaptive coping techniques.” (Asarnow, Carlson, & Guthrie, 1987) This study shows that children who have depression have high levels of self-hatred, and hopelessness and lower levels of coping skills, thus making it harder for them to make and keep friends and love themselves. This study relates to Melinda in a large way, because as I’ve said before, she struggled to find genuine friends who really cared about her, and after a while, she gave up altogether. However, if Melinda were to find a group of friends who cared about her and loved her, she would’ve been happier and more optimistic on