Speak

Anderson, L. (1999). Speak. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.

Melinda is starting high school with no friends, including her good friends from middle school and her best friend Rachel.  At an end of the year party, she was raped by a senior named Andy Beast who she refers to as IT.  She was drunk and called the police.  Not knowing that she was raped, everyone was upset because they thought she called to cancelled the party and break it up.  Melinda carries this burden with her that not even her parents know about. She begins to hardly speaks, her grades have gone down, and is depressed.  Her teachers and parents think she is going through a phase in her life.  In art class, her teacher, Mr. Freeman, is aware of her talent.  She is given an assignment of a tree and she needs to create something with it and struggles with it.  Melinda befriends a girl named Heather.  They become friends, but Heather gets involve with cliques at school and only looks for Melinda when she needs something artistic done. Andy starts to approach her and taunts her, which makes her more emotional.  One spring day, Melinda starts planting flowers and cleaning her house.  This makes her feel better and she starts to regain her confidence.  Rachel begins dating Andy and Melinda decides to tell her what happened and she doesn’t believe her.  During prom Andy becomes aggressive with Rachel and she confronts him about Melinda.  Andy tries to attach Melinda again and gets caught.  In the end, she finishes her tree with low dead branches, but with strong branches as well symbolizing her life.  Due to its content about rape, I think this book is more appropriate for young reader that are 14 years and older.   I think this book sends out a strong message to anybody who has been raped, depressed, and has kept it to themselves.   I think one of the major strengths of this book is that only that it targets a subject that is important to society, but at the end of the book it lists ways to get help if you have ever been raped.  It lists some websites and phone numbers.  It gives  information for sexual survival tips as well as statistics of assault victims.  This book is realistic fiction and opens up the readers mind to the aftermath of someone who has been raped.  The book is divided into four marking periods symbolizing a part of the school year.  It’s theme is about rape and its aftermath and how it left Melinda vulnerable, confused, and depressed.  Many victims feel like it is their fault and are ashamed they don’t tell anyone.   Depression is also a theme because Melinda deals with it through-out most of the book.  She works through it by taking small steps and becomes successful at the end of the book.