Silent Victimization Exposed in Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel, “Speak”
Introduction
"Speak up for yourself--we want to know what you have to say."
Speak is Laurie Halse Anderson's first young adult novel. Young adult novel or Young Adult Literature includes issues related to friendship, love, race, money, divorce, relationships within families. The culture that backdrops and absorbs young adults plays a massive role in their lives. Young adult literature explores themes, vital and essential to teenage years such as relationships to influential figures, peer pressure and ensuing experimentations, issues of diversity as it relates to gender, socio-cultural, and/or socioeconomic status. Principally, the focus is centred on a young lead character …show more content…
Despite Melinda's bizarrely distressing experiences, almost every reader can connect to the world she lives in. Melinda lists the factions that the ninth grade class has broken into: "Jocks, Country Clubbers, Idiot Savants, Cheerleaders, Human Waste, Eurotrash, Future Fascists of America, Big Hair Chix, the Marthas, Suffering Artists, Thespians, Goths, Shredders" (4) Most readers understand Melinda's feeling of juvenile communal isolation. Her pessimistic reactions to certain aspects of the school day, such as gym class "Gym class should be illegal. It is humiliating" (18) and lunch are not exclusive to someone suffering from post-traumatic stress. Moreover, Melinda exhibits a distinctive adolescent response to power figures and castoffs them by giving them outrageous nicknames. The theme of adolescence bonds Melinda to the true world. Not only does it make her story easier to relate to, but it also makes it largely pertinent. Melinda's unexpected state of affairs just highlights the universal complications of adolescence- not just the social problems, but the contradictory pulls between the future mature self and the past child self. Melinda feels dismayed by the sexuality of her high school peers, largely because she is a sufferer of sexual aggression, but also because she does not feel prepared for this next segment of life. Approaching the terms with what …show more content…
In the novel, we observe various forms of communication: sticky notes on the kitchen counter, notebooks passed amid students, letters left on school lockers, writings on the chalkboard, cassette devices, phone calls, and verbal conversations. Melinda's communication is mostly non-verbal. She expresses anxiousness and horror by biting her lip or running away. She asks her parents for favours by lettering notes. Even when she speaks, she seldom says what she wants to. When Heather tells Melinda that they can no longer be acquaintances, Melinda says, "I try to think of something bitchy, something wicked and cruel. I can't" (105). Of course, the most important communication clash in the novel involves Melinda's need to notify someone of the rape. It is not until the Fourth Marking Period that Melinda finds the guts to say something. Fascinatingly, though, in this preliminary declaration of her secret, she still does not speak. Instead, she passes a letter to Rachel explaining the night of the merrymaking. Even after her second assault, when the entire school learns of her past with Andy Evans, Melinda still does not speak. It is not until the very last line of the novel that we comprehend that Melinda is going to ultimately tell her story out loud. The final communication in the story is noticeably left out of the novel, making the theme even more
Introduction
"Speak up for yourself--we want to know what you have to say."
Speak is Laurie Halse Anderson's first young adult novel. Young adult novel or Young Adult Literature includes issues related to friendship, love, race, money, divorce, relationships within families. The culture that backdrops and absorbs young adults plays a massive role in their lives. Young adult literature explores themes, vital and essential to teenage years such as relationships to influential figures, peer pressure and ensuing experimentations, issues of diversity as it relates to gender, socio-cultural, and/or socioeconomic status. Principally, the focus is centred on a young lead character …show more content…
Despite Melinda's bizarrely distressing experiences, almost every reader can connect to the world she lives in. Melinda lists the factions that the ninth grade class has broken into: "Jocks, Country Clubbers, Idiot Savants, Cheerleaders, Human Waste, Eurotrash, Future Fascists of America, Big Hair Chix, the Marthas, Suffering Artists, Thespians, Goths, Shredders" (4) Most readers understand Melinda's feeling of juvenile communal isolation. Her pessimistic reactions to certain aspects of the school day, such as gym class "Gym class should be illegal. It is humiliating" (18) and lunch are not exclusive to someone suffering from post-traumatic stress. Moreover, Melinda exhibits a distinctive adolescent response to power figures and castoffs them by giving them outrageous nicknames. The theme of adolescence bonds Melinda to the true world. Not only does it make her story easier to relate to, but it also makes it largely pertinent. Melinda's unexpected state of affairs just highlights the universal complications of adolescence- not just the social problems, but the contradictory pulls between the future mature self and the past child self. Melinda feels dismayed by the sexuality of her high school peers, largely because she is a sufferer of sexual aggression, but also because she does not feel prepared for this next segment of life. Approaching the terms with what …show more content…
In the novel, we observe various forms of communication: sticky notes on the kitchen counter, notebooks passed amid students, letters left on school lockers, writings on the chalkboard, cassette devices, phone calls, and verbal conversations. Melinda's communication is mostly non-verbal. She expresses anxiousness and horror by biting her lip or running away. She asks her parents for favours by lettering notes. Even when she speaks, she seldom says what she wants to. When Heather tells Melinda that they can no longer be acquaintances, Melinda says, "I try to think of something bitchy, something wicked and cruel. I can't" (105). Of course, the most important communication clash in the novel involves Melinda's need to notify someone of the rape. It is not until the Fourth Marking Period that Melinda finds the guts to say something. Fascinatingly, though, in this preliminary declaration of her secret, she still does not speak. Instead, she passes a letter to Rachel explaining the night of the merrymaking. Even after her second assault, when the entire school learns of her past with Andy Evans, Melinda still does not speak. It is not until the very last line of the novel that we comprehend that Melinda is going to ultimately tell her story out loud. The final communication in the story is noticeably left out of the novel, making the theme even more