My verbal language has always been a large aspect of my personality, and I believe it is also like this for everyone else. From my very early toddler years, the way I have learned to speak has been in hands of my environment, not mine. My voice is who I am, where I come from, and where I have been.…
Speak is written with the intent of drawing the reader in and initiating the gut feeling which we learned is created with the use of metafiction. Anderson writes the whole book in present tense and from Melinda’s point of view. The grammar she uses is casual and is written how a typical teenager would talk. The dialogue within Melinda’s head is sarcastic and vivid, starkly contrasting the introverted facade she erects to protect herself. This insight into her mind evokes sympathy for Melinda and a connection to a character that doesn’t really exist.…
In the book, “Speak” by, Laurie Halse Anderson, we are taken on a journey through the life of a young girl, named Melinda Sordino. We quickly learn that Melinda is a rape survivor that becomes mute after encountering sexual violence at a party during summer break, right before the start of her freshman year of high school. Melinda carries the burden of this secret with her in shame and in silence, from the hallways of her school to the doors of her home; internally isolating herself from everyone.…
The Yellow Fever epidemic that raged through Philadelphia in 1793 changed life for Philadelphians who survived the outbreak of the disease. A historical fiction novel, Fever 1793, by Laurie Halse Anderson, took place in this advanced, busy city when the Yellow Fever came to town. Matilda “Mattie” Cook, the main character of the novel, has to learn how to survive the fever and keep herself and the ones she loves alive while doing it. All through the novel, Matilda learns a lesson about how saying goodbye to people she cares about is difficult, and has to learn to accept the pain that lingers afterwards - something that Anderson also shows through her use of repetition of flashback in the novel.…
Jennifer Thompson was a straight-A student at Elon University in Burlington, North Carolina. She had her life all planned out: maintain straight A’s, graduate with a 4.0 GPA, and marry her boyfriend, Paul. Jennifer said frightened “Who is that? Whose there?” I said, “Allowing myself to think it must be Paul, or someone playing a stupid joke” (12). Then suddenly she looked and saw a stranger in her room. Before she knew it, she was getting raped. During her attack, she made sure she paid attention to her attacker’s features and his voice. The rapist began to hiss “Shut up or I’ll cut you!” he hissed, “while clamping a glove hand down her mouth” (12). He proceeded to brutally rape her, with a knife at her throat. “I’m afraid of knives.” I told him, “I can’t relax until you put it down. Can you put it outside? On my car?” (15-16). Jennifer stayed as calm as possible, trying to remember as many details about her assailant as she could, until she managed to escape. She tried staying calm and having conversations with this man and stayed calm the entire time. When she had the chance and knew he wasn’t there she began to run and was shouting for help. As she ran screaming to the top of her lungs a nice family opened the door and let her in. They took care of Jennifer and took her to the hospital. Through an inept summary and analysis of Picking Cotton, readers will be able to understand key points throughout the book, and determine why or why not they should pursue reading the book.…
Forge is Laurie Halse Anderson’s second installment to the Chains series following up her previous novel, Chains. The escapades of the young African American slaves, Isabel and Curzon, continue in this sequel to Chains. Young Curzon and Isabel are forced to endure the hardships of maturing during the demanding time of the American Revolution. Curzon and Isabel are runaway slaves who have a high risk of getting captured with their past catching up to them every step of the way. Forge is told from the perspective of Curzon in a journal-like fashion, each entry has a date. Laurie Halse Anderson had a team of researchers gather an immense amount of information on the American Revolution and the time period to make her Historical Fiction novel as realistic as possible. By making Forge’s novel structure journal entries from Curzon’s angle, Anderson was adept in making the reader connect, investigate, and comprehend his character and the American Revolution further.…
Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption follows the story of Louie Zamperini, a rebellious child who grew up to become one of the fastest runners of the 1930s. He competed as an Olympic track runner in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The future was looking bright for Zamperini before World War II began, which resulted in the Olympics being cancelled and Louie being drafted into the Army Air Forces as a bombardier. Midway through 1943, his B-24 crash landed in the Pacific Ocean. For weeks, Louie and two other men drifted westward across a seemingly endless ocean, accompanied by a pack of sharks and surviving on scraps of bird and fish meat and the occasional rainfall. Eventually, he arrived in Japanese…
The real meaning of a dream is hope, an inspiration; a purpose. Every human being has a dream or goal; the dreams change greatly from person to person, some being minor while others are enormous. There is no human being alive doesn’t have a dream, or goal in his life. These ideas what makes you today and part of why you are living. We all have the need to live a successful life. Dreams are lively to the life of every person. Without these dreams or goals, there is nothing to plan or look forward to or no reason to live.…
“Open my book & peel the layers of my skin...don't judge me by my cover 'cause there's much more within” (Anonymous). This anonymous quote displays a common theme in both the book “The Scarlet Letter” and the book “Speak.” Do not judge people before you know them is a lesson that can be learned from both of these stories. The theme is only one of the multiple common aspects of the books “Speak” and “The Scarlet Letter.”…
In “A Mother Speaks,” Michael Harper conveys the message on how the colored were treated unfairly through the use of imagery and mood. The poem was based on the Algiers Motel incident in Detroit where a couple of colored people were killed by white officers for no reason. “I was led away without seeing this plastic face they'd built that was not my son’s” (Harper). As the quote shows, imagery is used to convey the message when it describes the boy’s condition after being assaulted without any faults or offenses to the point in which his own mother did not recognize him. The reader gets attached to the story through the poem. When the boy says, “Oh I'm so sorry, officer, I broke your gun.” (Harper), the reader understands why the boy did not…
In the novel Speak written by Laurie Halse Anderson the readers are introduced to Melinda Sordino, a freshman in high school who is suffering at the hands of another student. It is clear that through out the story that Melinda’s family is dysfunctional. Throughout the book Melinda’s parents do not hear her desperate cries for the help she so desperately needs. This is shown through the way the family interacts with each other, how Melinda’s parents respond to her signs of deep suffering, and how they handle the drastic changes in Melinda after experiencing such a traumatic event.…
“Every scar I have makes me who I am” proclaimed an anonymous author. Sometimes people make decisions that will stick with them forever, even if they don’t want it to. In the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, she writes about a teenager named Melinda who goes through a ton of drama over the summer before and during her freshman year. A boy named Andy Evans sees Melinda and comes by her. He stays with her all night. Later through the night he brings her away from everyone else and rapes her. Melinda is terrified and calls the police. Rachel, her former best friend, finds out and leaves her at the party. Rachel hates Melinda for involving the police. Melinda walks home to an empty house, refuses to speak and isolates herself from society.…
“Speak” is book about a young girl who loses her voice after being raped and slowly gains it back over time. Laurie Halse Anderson uses an internal voice throughout the book to show the havoc that is attacking Melinda’s mind. This adds to the theme of being outcast and isolated because the she has no one to really talk to.…
High school is supposed to be a fun, new, and exciting experience. The novel Speak is about a social outcast named Melinda and her struggles to fit in in high school. She doesn’t have any true friends because no one stays around long enough to hear her story. The book is written by Laurie Halse Anderson. Throughout the novel Melinda shows her emotional discomfort through actions instead of speaking out. In the end she speaks up for herself and she finds a happier state of being.…
“It is easier not to say anything. Shut your trap, button your lip; can it. 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.” (Speak. Pg. 9, Paragraph 4.) Everyone at some point in their lives have felt that terrifying feeling of dejection, sorrow, anger, frustration and pain. Whether it is an action done by one or an action done by others, there is always the fear of being judged, to which people decide it is best if they don’t talk their problems with others. Melinda used to be a serene, sweet loving girl that loved to play sports and had a good relationship with her parents and friends, but suddenly, as she started her first high school year, she skips days of school, drop her grades and feels completely empty. The tones of fear and relief in Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson reflect an inner growth presented by the main character when she overcomes the challenging and devastating condition of being sexually abused.…