Melinda Sordino Character Analysis

185 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Now and then character analysis

Melinda Sordino started off her high school experience like an outcast. She didn’t have any friends and she just expected it to stay that way. All Melinda wanted was to tell her best friend what really happened, but the closest she got to a friend was Heather from Ohio. She became depressed not only from what happened but also from being stuck in the tiny town of Syracuse, New York. She is going through her freshman year acting like nothing ever happened. She spends almost the entire year mute because she thinks no one will want to hear what she has to say. Melinda struggles with trying to find her voice the entire book. It’s not until the end that she realizes how much she’s dying to say, and what she has been missing all this time. She somehow

Show More
Related

  • Lois Burdoo Character Analysis

    646 Words  | 2 Pages

    Imagine if a child you dearly loved stood waiting while people cast their bids on her. What would you do? Amos Fortune, a freed slave, faced this exact situation. Lois Burdoo and her five children lived in great poverty. After the tragic death of her husband, Moses Burdoo, she struggled to provide her children’s daily needs. Eventually, she became unable to care for her oldest two children, Polly and Moses, and sadly put them up to vendue. Amos should have bought Polly because of three essential points: generosity embodied him, love inspired him, and poverty consumed her.

    Read More

  • Right Of The Bat By Hannah Dustan Character Analysis

    1521 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Power of an Author Authors have the ability justify the worst actions. Authors have a way of romanticizing certain situations in order to convey a specific message. A good author has power to influence the reader into believing whatever it is the author wants. When it comes to the story of Hannah Dustan, authors such as John Greenleaf Whittier have romanticized her captivity story along with the actions she took throughout her journey. Introducing a character that will be seen in the story is one of the most vital parts when creating a piece of literature.

    Read More

  • Maria Teresa Mirabal Character Analysis

    720 Words  | 2 Pages

    Maria Teresa Mirabal, also known as Mate was born on October 15, 1935. She is the youngest out of all the Mirabal sisters and we mostly get to know her from her journal entries. Mate received her diary from Minerva on the day of her first communion. At school, people would make fun of her for having the diary and would steal it from her. Mate used to think differently about Trujillo as a little girl, she thought he was someone that everyone loved and should be respected. On Benefactor’s Day, she wanted to give Trujillo her best wishes, "I am taking these few minutes to wish El Jefe Happy Benefactor's Day with all my heart. I feel so lucky that we have him for a president." (37) Mate’s sister Minerva starts to get in trouble at school for leaving

    Read More

  • I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter Analysis

    612 Words  | 2 Pages

    Her struggles are of a flower trying to blossom in a pile of garbage. Growing up in the poor side of the southside of Chicago, Mexican music blasting early in the morning or ducking from the bullets flying in a drive-by shooting. Julia solace is found in her writing, and in her high school English class. Mr. Ingram her English teacher asks her what she wants out of life she cries “I want to go to school. I want to see the word” and “I want so many things sometimes I can’t even stand it. I feel like I’m going to explode.” But Ama doesn’t see it that way, she just tells, Julia, she is a bad daughter because she wants to leave her family. The world is not what it seems. It is filled with evil and bad people that just want to her hurt and take advantage of

    Read More

  • Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

    1740 Words  | 4 Pages

    Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a story written in the first person about a young girl named Melinda Sordino. The title of the book, Speak, is ironically based on the fact that Melinda chooses not to speak. The book is written in the form of a monologue in the mind of Melinda, a teenage introvert. This story depicts the story of a very miserable freshman year of high school. Although there are several people in her high school, Melinda secludes herself from them all. There are several people in her school that used to be her friend in middle school, but not anymore. Not after what she did over the summer. What she did was call the cops on an end of summer party on of her friends was throwing. Although all her classmates think there was no reason to call, only Melinda knows the real reason. Even if they cared to know the real reason, there is no way she could tell them. A personal rape story is not something that flows freely off the tongue. Throughout the story Melinda describes the pain she is going through every day as a result of her rape. The rape of a teenage girl often leads to depression. Melinda is convinced that nobody understands her, nor would they even if they knew what happened that summer. Once a happy girl, Melinda is now depressed and withdrawn from the world. She hardly ever speaks, nor does she do well in school. She bites her lips and her nails until they bleed. Her parents seem to think she is just going through a faze, but little do they know, their daughter has undergone a life changing trauma that will affect her life forever.

    Read More

  • Melindas Improvement

    474 Words  | 1 Pages

    Ever since the party, Melinda rarely talked to anybody, including her parents. Nevertheless, I noticed that during the second semester of the year she talked considerably more. “All right, but you said we had to put emotion into our art. I don’t know what that means. I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel.”(p122). This quote is from the third marking period when Melinda was talking to her art teacher Mr.Freeman. I believe that she wouldn’t have said anything had it been earlier in the year. “Stinks. It was a mistake to sign up for art. I just couldn’t see myself taking wood shop.”(p.146). This quote is another example of Melinda talking, this time to Ivy in the mall. I think these quotes prove that Melinda starts talking more as the year progresses.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Laura Anderson's Speak

    1023 Words  | 3 Pages

    The plot of the book, Speak is that Melinda Sordino, a freshman at Merryweather High went to an end of the summer party with some of her friends. Things take a turn for the worst when a senior named Andy Evans sexually assaults her at the party without her friends knowing about it. Melinda is frightened, afraid, and does not know what to do so she calls 911 busting the party, and causing her friends and everyone at that school to hate her, even if they don’t know her.

    Read More

  • Speak And Twisted Analysis

    845 Words  | 2 Pages

    Likewise, teenagers relate to the main characters in the novels, "Speak" and "Twisted" by Laurie Halse Anderson. Students go to school, and eat alone for lunch because of their appearance. In comparison to, Melinda saying, "I have entered high school with the wrong hair, the wrong clothes, the wrong attitudes. And I don't have anyone to sit with. I am Outcast (Speak, 4). She's realizing she's different from others. Also, Tyler revealing, "I figured if I killed myself, everybody who treated me like dirt would feel awful" (Twisted, 190). Melinda and Tyler suffer from adolescence of being a teen, which is why Anderson crafts a theme of facing conflicts to become a better person, and speaking out about a terrible fear.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In Melinda Sordino's Speak

    241 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the novel, Speak, Melinda Sordino begins ninth grade at Merryweather High School. Melinda is given the assignment to create a tree in Mr. Freeman's art class. This is the only class she truly enjoys and cares about. At first, she expects this art assignment to be quite easy, but quickly realizes that it will not be simple. Melinda begins the art project on a rough note. She struggles to create a tree and claims it looks like a dead tree every time she tries. Sketch after sketch her trees are still excluded and engulfed in darkness, which symbolizes how Melinda is feeling. She is feeling lonely and is in a dark place. She is struggling personally and copes by sketching trees. The three trees that are colorless represent Melinda feeling isolated

    Read More

  • Melinda Sordino Trauma

    1526 Words  | 4 Pages

    Melinda desperately wanted to explain and rely on someone. Rachel showed indifference as she invited Melinda to the party and Melinda did something that she should not have, which could affect her potential high school status. After Melinda calls the cops at the party, nobody bothers to ask what’s wrong, not even Rachel/Rachelle, who was Melinda's best friend. The first interaction that Melinda had after the event was in the cafeteria with Rachel, where she whispers, “i hate you,” from where she is seated (5). Since the people involved are not even slightly curious as to why or what could have happened to make Melinda call the cops, she becomes alienated. Melinda later becomes friends with Heather, their relationship is based on using each other. Melinda uses Heather so she is not alone. While Heather uses Melinda, so she can help her complete activities to join the Martha’s. When you start relying on someone and you still get omitted, it doesn’t make you overcome the wound, in fact, it adds more injuries. Compared to Heather and Rachel, when Melinda meets Ivy and David Petrakis she starts opening up. David is a role-model as he is the only one who helps her speak up. David does not know what Melinda has been through, yet Melinda still went to him when she didn't want to speak for her suffragette presentation. He helps her but later tells her that,"The suffragettes were all about speaking up, [and she] can't speak up for [her] right to be silent." This connects Melinda to the women in the past, who spoke for their rights. In contradiction, Melinda stays silent for hers, which won't have as great an effect (159). Ivy is the first person to understand and agree with Melinda. She also thinks that Andy Evans, Melinda's assaulter is bad news. When Melinda realizes

    Read More

  • Archetype In Laurie Anderson's Speak

    539 Words  | 2 Pages

    The book Speak by Laurie Anderson is about how Melinda Sordino--- an “outcast” girl overcome the trouble in her life, her growth in mind and how she learned to speak up for herself.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis of Mr. Freeman in Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

    549 Words  | 2 Pages

    Speak, is a novel written by Laurie Halse Anderson, about a girl entering high school, for the first time, with a heavy secret weighting on her. Melinda Sordino begins freshman year at Merryweather High School, being a complete different person. Over the summer, Melinda and her friends went to a senior party, where Melinda ended calling the police. This caused her friends and the people at the party to socially reject her, even though they didn’t knew that before the phone call, Andy Evans raped her. Due to the phone call, Melinda enters high school without friends and having to see Andy Evans everyday. Her only “safe” place in the entire school is art class, where Mr. Freeman is the teacher. Mr. Freeman is the only teacher Melinda doesn’t dislike or avoids, because he listens and understands her, but also shows her the value of honesty.

    Read More

  • Little Red Riding Hood by Bill Delaney

    937 Words  | 2 Pages

    Her father works out of town and does not seem to be involved in his daughters lives as much. Her older sister, who works at the school, is nothing but plain Jane. Connie’s mother, who did nothing nag at her, to Connie, her mother’s words were nothing but jealousy from the beauty she had once had. The only thing Connie seems to enjoy is going out with her best friend to the mall, at times even sneaking into a drive-in restaurant across the road. Connie has two sides to herself, a version her family sees and a version everyone else sees.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Turning Point In Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak

    2088 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda, the main character, goes through a series of events that affect her in the long run and shape her identity. Melinda goes through an eventful evening at a party and keeps it to herself for a long period of time. This is just one of the things that affects her. Some other turning points in Melinda’s life is when she finally tells someone about what happened at that party, as well as losing her friend Heather. These are all things that

    Read More

  • Victoria Guzman Character Analysis

    544 Words  | 2 Pages

    Victoria Guzman is a victim of Direct Violence in her youth, and a perpetrator of Cultural Violence as an adult to make-up for the pain from her past.

    Read More

More about Melinda Sordino Character Analysis

Open Document