Summary Of Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

“When people don't express themselves, they die one piece at a time.” A statement said by Mr. Freemen to Melinda. Melinda Sordino, the main character of Speak, loses the ability to communicate after she is sexually assaulted at a party. Instead of speaking out about what happened to her, she bottles up her pain inside, hoping that she doesn't have to speak about it. Anderson shows us through Melinda’s interactions with her classmates that by speaking, we gain power over how we live our lives. One time this becomes apparent in the book is when Melinda doesn’t speak up and doesn’t tells Mr. Neck she doesn’t want to do the report and he cannot make her. At this point in the story, Melinda has a D in Mr. Neck’s class, she wants a better grade. Mr. Neck makes her do the report and read it in front of class. Melinda does the report and she knows Mr. Neck purposely told her to read it out loud in front of the class. Here we see Melinda coming up with a plan, she stays silent.

At this time in the story Melinda and Rachel pass each other a notebook, which they have been writing on. Melinda tells Rachel the reason she called the cops. We see Melinda speaking up and telling Rachel she has been assaulted by Andy. This causes Rachel to leave her and get mad but also it creates doubt. Later on she dumps Andy, and believes Melinda. Since Melinda had spoken up she gained more confidence, she has more help, and she saved her friend.

Finally, Laurie Halse Anderson shows us many important lessons and points in the book. One major one is by speaking up we gain power over how we live our lives. It is important to know this statement, because we need to know that by speaking up positive things can come out and we have the power to how we want to live. Based on the lesson I think Melinda should have had told her parents instead of Mr. Freemen, at the end of the