Realism, Romance & Censorship ~ Speak

Book Cover Photo Source, Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/imageviewer.asp?ean=9780142407325, accessed September 25, 2009.

Bibliography:

Anderson, Laurie Halse. 1999. SPEAK. New York: The Penguin Group. ISBN 9780142407325

Critical Analysis:

SPEAK is a story about rape, conflict and depression. At the beginning of the story we meet Melinda, who is getting ready to board the bus for her first day at Merryweather high school. "I am an outcast." This is how she sees herself and how she is viewed by others. As the story progresses we learn that Melinda called 911 during a teen drinking party over the summer. This is why she is an outcast. What her friends don't know is that she was raped by a popular boy in school whom she refers to as "IT". "I see IT in the hallway. IT goes to Merryweather. IT is walking with Aubrey cheerleader. IT is my nightmare and I can't wake up. IT sees me. IT smiles and winks. Good thing my lips are stitched together or I'd throw up." As the school year passes, Melinda withdraws more and speaks less and less. Her relationship with her parents is awkward at best and you find yourself wondering how they can be so ignorant of the increasingly alarming situation their daughter is in. Although Melinda is tortured by the memory of what happened to her, she chooses to suffer in silence.

At school, Melinda makes friends with a new girl named Heather, that she doesn't even like. Art turns out to be Melinda's sanctuary. "Art follows lunch, like dream follows nightmare." Mr Freeman, her art teacher, sees her potential and encourages her to use art as a form of personal expression. In turn, she finds refuge in her work as well as in his classroom. Mr. Freeman is also the only person who recognizes that something is terrribly wrong and lets Melinda know that he is there when she is ready to talk about her situation, whatever it may be. When Melinda has a physical altercation with her attacker, and finds her voice to scream "NNNOOO!!!", she can finally face her fears and begin the healing process. Many teens today face similar issues, as well as huge amounts of stress, and will identify with Melinda's character. Written in superb descriptive dialect, SPEAK will hold readers from the first sentence, "It is my first morning of high school." to the last, "Let me tell you about it."

1999 National Book Award Finalist

Review Excerpts:

KIRKUS REVIEWS: "A frightening and sobering look at the cruelty and viciousness that pervade much of contemporary high school life, as real as today's headlines. At the end of the summer before she enters high school, Melinda attends a party at which two bad things happen to her. She gets drunk, and she is raped. Shocked and scared, she calls the police, who break up the party and send everyone home. She tells no one of her rape, and the other students, even her best friends, turn against her for ruining their good time. By the time school starts, she is completely alone, and utterly desolate. She withdraws more and more into herself, rarely talking, cutting classes, ignoring assignments, and becoming more estranged daily from the world around her. Few people penetrate her shell; one of them is Mr. Freeman, her art teacher, who works with her to help her express what she has so deeply repressed."

HORN BOOK: "Speaking out at the "wrong" time-calling 911 from a teen drinking party-has made Melinda a social outcast; now she barely speaks at all. A conversation with her father about their failed Thanksgiving dinner goes as follows: "Dad: 'It's supposed to be soup.' / Me: / Dad: 'It tasted a bit watery, so I kept adding thickener....'/ Me: ." While Melinda's smart and savvy interior narrative slowly reveals the searing pain of that 911 night, it also nails the high-school experience cold-from "The First Ten Lies They Tell You" (number eight: "Your schedule was created with your needs in mind") to cliques and clans and the worst and best in teachers. The book is structurally divided into four marking periods, over which Melinda's grades decline severely and she loses the only friend she has left, a perky new girl she doesn't even like. Melinda's nightmare discloses itself in bits throughout the story: a frightening encounter at school ("I see IT in the hallway....IT sees me. IT smiles and winks"), an artwork that speaks pain. Melinda aches to tell her story, and well after readers have deduced the sexual assault, we feel her choking on her untold secret."

Classroom Connections:

After reading the book, discuss some of the different issues facing young adults today. Rape, depression, conflict, stress. Have students reflect their experiences in a journal.

Laurie Halse Anderson's website, http://www.writerlady.com/ has several units of study available to download in many subject areas.