I read the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson for this Coming of Age reading unit. The book is about a young teenager named Melinda who suffers through many different issues and problems in her teenage years. The main problem that happens in the book is that she goes to a party over the summer and calls the cops because she almost got raped. Then when she goes to high school, all of her old friends that she knew before give her an "attitude" and hate her because of what she did at the party. Little do they know that she almost raped at that party. I think that the protagonist in this book (Melinda) has changed a lot. She was a dynamic character because if you take all the big events and her attitude towards them, and turn it into a timeline based story, she does change a lot. She becomes a much stronger person.
In the beginning of the book shes just a young teenager who's very excited to start high school until she begins to notice how everyone hates her. She walks through the hallways and see's everyone giving her dirty looks and then she hears people talking about her in the gym locker room. She tries to confront some of her friends but they just give her an attitude just for calling the cops. But then again, none of her former friends knew the reason behind the call. Melinda goes to high school hoping to start fresh, hoping to make new friends, get good grades, and be ready for a change and transition from middle school to high school. She feels deceived to know that all her friends hate her after such an incident. Because of all her friends hating her, and making fun of her, she suffers through a silenced high school year. She keeps everything to herself and she never really expressed her feelings out to everyone. That was just her school life. Since Melinda felt "unwanted", she couldn't concentrate on her own studies except for Art class. She got D's and C's and even some F's in all her classes except in Art she got an A. I think this happened because in the book the author really spent a lot of time talking about how Melinda put a lot of depth and thinking into her art. She relates her own life to her artwork. She is able to express herself. Also after getting her first marking period report card her parents get calls from teachers saying that they expect more from her. Also her parents are getting her really stressed because they aren't recieving the grades there child is getting.
In the end of the book she changes a lot because she becomes much more stronger. Loneliness is a really big issue in this book too. This is because Melinda has been through such a big incident in her life and really has no one to talk to and share her feelings with. The entire school pretty much hates her for calling the cops at the party so there's no one at school that is willing to talk to her and be there for her. Her parents don't have any time for her and shes slacking in most of her classes and because of that, her parents are always yelling at her and they don't know about the rape and she feels its embarrassing to tell them. She really has no one to talk to because no one has time for her. If the rape hadn't happened then she would be lonely at all! At times I've been pretty lonely my self and it feels like you have no one that cares about you, and you have no one to ask for advice for. Its just like a scream of voices in your head struggling of what to do. This is how loneliness is a really big issue in this book.
In conclusion I think that rape and loneliness are both really big issues in the book because they both affected Melinda's life a lot and its very scary and sad. Rape affected her life because she got raped over the summer and called the cops and because of that she isn't who she used to be. Loneliness is a big issue in the book because she has no one there for her and she has trouble in a lot of things but no one to tell too. This is why rape and loneliness is a big affect on her life.
