Character Analysis Of Speak In Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak

This passage from Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel Speak shows how the main character, Melinda, has to face and overcome her biggest fear, speaking up against Andy Evans. When Melinda gets locked in the closet with Andy Evans, she is scared for her life. She sees him as “made out of slabs of stone”(193). Melinda still thinks of Andy as an invincible beast and she is still obscenly afraid of his strength. She envisions his hands as “enormous”(193). Therefore showing how frightening his size and physique is. She knows he can and will rape her again if she does not do anything about it. Melinda tries to scream but the “only sound [she] can make is a whimper” (194). Her best attempt at calling out for help comes out as a whimper. She uses the word “whimper” to describe the sound she made was as if she is a small animal, hurt by a larger predator, and that what is occuring in the closest.
Fortunately, when Andy tries to get one hand free she “remember[s] [she] remembers metal hands, hot knife hands” (194). Melinda remembers last summer and she cannot bear to be victimized and traumatized again. She realizes that nothing worse can happen to her than what is happening right now. She remembers how he touched her with what seemed like “hot knife hands” that melted not only her skin, but her soul. This motivates her to face her fear and fight Andy. Melinda still, however, sees Andy as a beast, as a “dragon” that does not hear nor breathe (195). Her flashbacks help her overcome this “dragon”. With all her strength, Melinda fights back with a shard of glass, until “he freezes...His lips are