The Causes Of Insecurity In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

Tom Hooper once said, “I think we all have blocks between us and the best version of ourselves, whether it’s shyness, insecurity, anxiety, whether it’s a physical block, and the story of a person overcoming that block their best self. It’s truly inspiring because I think all of us are engaged in that everyday.” A constant reason of barricade is the insecurity we feel in certain times of our lives. In the novel, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, many characters experience self-doubt and worry. The most prominent examples of insecurity are the conflicts that Heather, Rachel, and Melinda reveal throughout the novel. In the case of Heather, we see a young girl and the insecurity of finding her place in a new school. Heather is trying to find …show more content…
Rachel finds her security in popularity. At the very beginning of the novel, we find out that Rachel stopped being friends with Melinda because she had called the cops at a party. On Melinda’s first day of school, she gets a difficult reminder of this: “The kids behind me laugh so loud I know they’re laughing about me. I can’t help myself. I turn around. It’s Rachel, surrounded by a bunch of kids wearing clothes that most definitely did not come from the Eastside Mall. Rachel Bruin, my ex-best friend…” (5). Rachel is afraid of being judged if she continues to hang out with Melinda. Rachel does not want to endure the judgement that comes with being friends with the girl who called the cops at a party. Even though Rachel does not know the whole story, she still does not want to risk the damage to her popularity. To aid in Rachel’s pursuit for stability, she gets with Andy Evans to draw more attention to herself. Being with Andy meant that more people would know her name, thus heightening her social status. In the days leading up to prom, Andy asks Rachel to go with him: “Rachel is one of the war ninth-graders invited to go to the Senior Prom; her social stock has soared.” (176). Rachel finds security in being with Andy. She has a higher social rating, more people know who she is and she has a boyfriend. Rachel hangs out with the foreign exchange students and him in front of everyone, and she loves the …show more content…
Melinda battles the insecurity of herself and speaking up in a more internal manner. Melinda is very unconfident when it comes to her outside appearance and personality. When Melinda is laying in her bed, she glances at the mirror and thinks: “Two muddy-circle eyes under black-dash eyebrows, piggy more nostrils, and a chewed up horror of a mouth. Definitely not a dryad face. I can’t stop biting my lips. It looks like my mouth belongs to someone else, someone I don’t even know.” (17). Melinda really dislikes mirrors and always covers or puts them away. It can be inferred that she does not like looking at herself. Melinda frequently talks very degradingly about herself, and how her features feel like they are not her own. Melinda does not seem to have much self-love or respect. Linked to this is the events that happened the night of the party. Melinda is extremely insecure of having to speak up at all, let alone about this terrible night. One day, Melinda is at the mall, deep in her thoughts: “I should probably tell someone, just tell someone. Get it over with. Let it out, blurt it out.” (99). We see here the internalized conflict Melinda has with herself about speaking of the night Andy took advantage of her. Melinda is too scared to say anything in case no one believes her or thinks that she is making it up. She is also insecure of having everyone judge or talk behind her back about it. Melinda is