Written by: Laurie Halse Anderson
Published by: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1999
ISBN: 978-0-374-31125-4
Plot Summary
Speak opens on Melinda Sordino's first day of high school. She has no friends to sit with on the bus or in the auditorium and is an outcast because she called the police at a party over the summer. What no one knows is that the call was the result of Melinda being raped by a popular senior. She moves through the year, speaking less and less and eventually begins to skip class. She finds an abandoned broom closet and begins to use it as her personal sanctuary, a place to escape. Her only inspiration comes in art class where her teacher has unusual methods and Melinda is able to find her talent and maybe, in time, her voice again.
Critical Analysis
Speak is focused primarily on Melinda and is told from her point of view. Melinda is, at the same time, very much a typical teenage girl and feels completely different from all the other girls at her school. She is under the impression that her assault is something that she is alone in experiencing. However, when her old friend Ivy speaks to her about the boy who assaulted her, she realizes that not only is she not alone in her experience, she's one of many girls who has been harmed by this one person.
Melinda's character has a journey throughout the book that is full of twists and turns. She seems to be on a downward spiral but she does attempt to outwardly maintain a sense of having things together. She allows a new girl, Heather, to befriend her, but at this point, Melinda doesn't seem to be emotionally capable of the requirements of friendship, particularly with someone like Heather. Heather doesn't seem to have the life experience or the empathy to handle Melinda's depression. She is interested in more mainstream teenage girl pursuits, primarily becoming popular and having a group to belong to. At first Melinda goes along with Heather, even helping her to attain membership in a group called "The Marthas", who would almost certainly never accept Melinda. However, Melinda eventually realizes how shallow Heather is after she essentially dumps her and refuses to help Heather when she comes back begging for her help. This is a big moment in the book because Melinda finally finds her voice and stands up for herself.
Melinda also shows healing and growth when she reaches out to her lab partner, David Petrakis, for help when their US History teacher changes the terms of her extra credit assignment and tells her she must present it orally to the class for credit. David possesses characteristics that Melinda wishes she had. He is very smart and willing to speak up when he is wronged. He ends up helping her and becomes one of her first true friends in high school and one of the only people willing to look past the rumors about her.
The attack on Melinda at the party over the summer is the main event that drives the plot but it is only alluded to until the chapter A Night to Remember three-fourths of the way through the book. Melinda recalls the night that Andy raped her and exactly what happens. It is almost as if, after telling the entire story to the reader, she gains the strength to speak up in her life. Her ex-best friend, Rachel/ Rachelle is dating Andy Evans, the boy who raped her, and Melinda tells her the truth behind why she called the police at the party. Initially, Rachel is angry and accuses Melinda of lying, but she ends up dumping Andy at prom after she realizes Melinda was telling the truth.
By the end of the book, Melinda has grown enough that she no longer needs her broom closet sanctuary. The climax of the book occurs when she goes to clean it out and is once again attacked by Andy Evans. She is able to fight him off and one of her old friends, Nicole, is there to help with the members of the lacrosse team.
In the last chapter, Melinda is finishing the art project she's been working on all year, a tree. She has felt many emotions towards her teacher, Mr. Freeman, throughout the year, but she eventually realizes what a support he is to her and is the first adult she opens up to about her rape at the end of the book.
The setting is Merryweather High School, in Syracuse, New York. Although Melinda references her home throughout the book, it does not play a large enough part in the story that a reader wouldn't be able to imagine it happening in their own high school or city. Melinda's character and her story draw the reader in to the point that the setting almost collapses into her immediate surroundings, whether that is the art room, her broom closet at school, or her bedroom. Even though the book was written twenty years ago, it is still relatable today. The high school experience is universal and in this book, is written so as to be somewhat timeless.
Melinda grows throughout the book and literally finds her own voice by the end. This will resonate with many young women who are afraid to speak up because of what their peers will think of them. Melinda's experience and the book as a whole will also ring true to survivors of rape and assault and may be able to provide some hope to them. However, this is done in a very realistic way and is very obviously something that Melinda is still working on at the end of the book. There is no neat ending or obvious solution to the conflict in the story, but still Melinda has made strides to heal.
The book is divided into short chapters that are arranged by grading periods throughout the school year. The chapters act as vignettes of her school experience and are broken up almost like periods in a school day. At the end of each section, a list of her grades appear, both those for academic classes and for areas in which Melinda has graded herself- clothes, lunch, friends, and similar. Melinda falls further into depression, which is reflected in her falling grades.
Melinda's character is representative of all too many young people who have experienced a rape or assault at a young age. Her gender plays an important role in the book because these victims are primarily female. There is generally also more pressure for girls to try to fit in and stay quiet, and just accept the status quo. This would have been the case even more when this book was written twenty years ago. However, Melinda's metamorphosis also shows just how strong women can be. The characters of David and Mr. Freeman also serve as contrasts to Andy and her US History teacher, whom she calls Mr. Neck. This shows that there are absolutely men who are kind and supportive as well as those who will demean and take advantage of women and girls.
Melinda's character has a journey throughout the book that is full of twists and turns. She seems to be on a downward spiral but she does attempt to outwardly maintain a sense of having things together. She allows a new girl, Heather, to befriend her, but at this point, Melinda doesn't seem to be emotionally capable of the requirements of friendship, particularly with someone like Heather. Heather doesn't seem to have the life experience or the empathy to handle Melinda's depression. She is interested in more mainstream teenage girl pursuits, primarily becoming popular and having a group to belong to. At first Melinda goes along with Heather, even helping her to attain membership in a group called "The Marthas", who would almost certainly never accept Melinda. However, Melinda eventually realizes how shallow Heather is after she essentially dumps her and refuses to help Heather when she comes back begging for her help. This is a big moment in the book because Melinda finally finds her voice and stands up for herself.
Melinda also shows healing and growth when she reaches out to her lab partner, David Petrakis, for help when their US History teacher changes the terms of her extra credit assignment and tells her she must present it orally to the class for credit. David possesses characteristics that Melinda wishes she had. He is very smart and willing to speak up when he is wronged. He ends up helping her and becomes one of her first true friends in high school and one of the only people willing to look past the rumors about her.
The attack on Melinda at the party over the summer is the main event that drives the plot but it is only alluded to until the chapter A Night to Remember three-fourths of the way through the book. Melinda recalls the night that Andy raped her and exactly what happens. It is almost as if, after telling the entire story to the reader, she gains the strength to speak up in her life. Her ex-best friend, Rachel/ Rachelle is dating Andy Evans, the boy who raped her, and Melinda tells her the truth behind why she called the police at the party. Initially, Rachel is angry and accuses Melinda of lying, but she ends up dumping Andy at prom after she realizes Melinda was telling the truth.
By the end of the book, Melinda has grown enough that she no longer needs her broom closet sanctuary. The climax of the book occurs when she goes to clean it out and is once again attacked by Andy Evans. She is able to fight him off and one of her old friends, Nicole, is there to help with the members of the lacrosse team.
In the last chapter, Melinda is finishing the art project she's been working on all year, a tree. She has felt many emotions towards her teacher, Mr. Freeman, throughout the year, but she eventually realizes what a support he is to her and is the first adult she opens up to about her rape at the end of the book.
The setting is Merryweather High School, in Syracuse, New York. Although Melinda references her home throughout the book, it does not play a large enough part in the story that a reader wouldn't be able to imagine it happening in their own high school or city. Melinda's character and her story draw the reader in to the point that the setting almost collapses into her immediate surroundings, whether that is the art room, her broom closet at school, or her bedroom. Even though the book was written twenty years ago, it is still relatable today. The high school experience is universal and in this book, is written so as to be somewhat timeless.
Melinda grows throughout the book and literally finds her own voice by the end. This will resonate with many young women who are afraid to speak up because of what their peers will think of them. Melinda's experience and the book as a whole will also ring true to survivors of rape and assault and may be able to provide some hope to them. However, this is done in a very realistic way and is very obviously something that Melinda is still working on at the end of the book. There is no neat ending or obvious solution to the conflict in the story, but still Melinda has made strides to heal.
The book is divided into short chapters that are arranged by grading periods throughout the school year. The chapters act as vignettes of her school experience and are broken up almost like periods in a school day. At the end of each section, a list of her grades appear, both those for academic classes and for areas in which Melinda has graded herself- clothes, lunch, friends, and similar. Melinda falls further into depression, which is reflected in her falling grades.
Melinda's character is representative of all too many young people who have experienced a rape or assault at a young age. Her gender plays an important role in the book because these victims are primarily female. There is generally also more pressure for girls to try to fit in and stay quiet, and just accept the status quo. This would have been the case even more when this book was written twenty years ago. However, Melinda's metamorphosis also shows just how strong women can be. The characters of David and Mr. Freeman also serve as contrasts to Andy and her US History teacher, whom she calls Mr. Neck. This shows that there are absolutely men who are kind and supportive as well as those who will demean and take advantage of women and girls.
Awards Won
2000- Golden Kite Award for Fiction
Review Excerpt
From Publishers Weekly, published July 15, 2018
"In a stunning first novel, Anderson uses keen observations and vivid imagery to pull readers into the head of an isolated teenager. Divided into the four marking periods of an academic year, the novel, narrated by Melinda Sordino, begins on her first day as a high school freshman. No one will sit with Melinda on the bus. At school, students call her names and harass her; her best friends from junior high scatter to different cliques and abandon her. Yet Anderson infuses the narrative with a wit that sustains the heroine through her pain and holds readers' empathy."
Connections
Discuss the #MeToo movement with students and how attitudes towards sexual assault victims has (or has not) changed since this book was written.
Each section of the book ends with Melinda's report card. It has the grades for all of her actual classes but each one also includes other categories in which she is scoring herself, such as lunch, social life, clothes and plays nice. Students can create their own report cards with categories that they think are important to them. They can take some time to do a self check-in every so often in the areas they've chosen.
Each section of the book ends with Melinda's report card. It has the grades for all of her actual classes but each one also includes other categories in which she is scoring herself, such as lunch, social life, clothes and plays nice. Students can create their own report cards with categories that they think are important to them. They can take some time to do a self check-in every so often in the areas they've chosen.
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