Immorality In Speak

Immorality demonstrates growth through a person’s tough times. In the novel “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character, Melinda, has important issues going on in her life that make her life as hard as it can get. Melinda’s actions turn her into a wicked and immoral person to the society around her. Melinda starts off as a freshmen student at her high school. Many people can tell that she is going through a tough time because of her poor actions being shown. For example, biting her nails, or being unobtrusive. Melinda’s evil side is shown when she calls the police when she is invited to a high school end of the year summer party. However, now snitching is socially unacceptable. Calling the police left a bad image of Melinda to all …show more content…
However, the toughest is the rape. Andy, the boy who rapes her at the party attends the same high school that Melinda goes to. One of Melinda’s close friends falls in love with Andy and that makes her see the negative side of her friend. Melinda is in an art class where she feels protected because she can express herself for the reason that her drawing would resemble how she feels at that specific time in her life. As she got better with her feelings, her art did as well. Melinda now knows to speak how she feels and draw out how she feels or else the fear or how she feels will never vanish. As Melinda says, “I plunge my hand into the bottom of the globe and fish out my paper. ‘Tree.’ Tree? It's too easy. I learned how to draw a tree in second grade. I reach in for another piece of paper. Mr. Freeman shakes his head. ‘Ah-ah-ah,’ he says. ‘You just chose your destiny, you can't change that” (Anderson 12). This quote indicates that Melinda tries her best to chase her destiny and her drawings of the tree represent …show more content…
This shows us a representation of how she feels. This demonstrates that she feels isolated and trapped. As she states, “All that crap you hear on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie. Nobody really wants to hear what you have to say.” (Anderson 9). In this quote, Melinda shows the readers that silence is beneficial, and that being happy and healthy will only come when being strong physically, mentally, and emotionally. People see Melinda getting raped and bullied, yet they do not bother to help her. Melinda realizes that speaking up will always do good for someone because verbalizing thoughts is the only way to express emotion in most