How does Melinda change in the book speak?

How does Melinda change in the book speak?

By Laurie Halse Anderson Melinda Sordino, fourteen-year-old high school freshman, is drastically transformed when she’s raped by high school senior Andy Evans. She becomes silent and secretive; she becomes distrustful of people and terrified of being alone with a boy. Speak follows Melinda through her freshman year.

How does Melinda change from the beginning of the novel towards the end?

She is withdrawn and silent both at home and at school. She likes to skip school and avoid the awkward glances, conversations, and relationships with peers. As school officials and her parents seek to help Melinda, she continues to find escape and solace in art class.

What is Melinda like in the beginning of the novel?

Melinda is very perceptive and bright, but her vision is sometimes clouded by her suffering. The novel begins on Melinda’s first day in high school. Nobody at school will talk to Melinda, including Rachel Bruin, who’s been her best friend forever. Worse, just about everyone bullies her.

How has Melinda changed in the third marking period?

By creating a Cubist tree, Melinda revises the way she sees trees. She constructs the tree out fragments of her life — lockers, for instance — and in doing so, gains power over her life and distance from her problems.

What does Melinda value in speak?

Melinda believes in those values of self improvement and the striving for perfection that allows individuals to become better, to move from bad to good and from good to great.

How and why does Melinda finally speak up for herself?

Through the encouragement of her art teacher Mr. Freeman, Melinda starts to find her confidence and her voice again. And when Andy Evans attempts to rape her for the second time, she realizes she must speak out to stop him from doing this to anybody else.

Who does Melinda refer to as it over the course of the novel?

When she calls out for help and threatens him with a shard of glass, however, the whole school finally finds out about Andy’s crimes. Melinda also refers to him as “IT” and “Andy Beast” over the course of the novel.

Why does Melinda have difficulty talking?

‘ Melinda is probably suffering from what is often labelled as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. She is not able to verbalise her worst and biggest torment. As the events play on her mind she becomes more withdrawn and is losing the ability to communicate.

How has Melinda changed in the second marking period?

Melinda’s grades are even worse in the second marking period than they were in the first. Her parents yell at her, but she says nothing in her own defense, sure they would not listen. Melinda is grounded.

What happened in the third marking period of speak?

Melinda decides to skip school. She wanders around town, takes the bus to the mall, and ends up just waiting for school to get out so she will be safe to go home. By the end of the day, Melinda decides skipping school is not much different from going.

What did Melinda learn in speak?

Melinda, a high school freshman, is the protagonist in Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak. She learns that the only way to counter evil is to speak out against it.

Why are these changes taking place speak?

These changes are taking place because she has found out Andy Evans has not only harassed her, but he has also come in contact with other people and has done them harm.

What kind of class does Melinda take in speak?

Ultimately, the only class that truly engages Melinda is Mr. Freeman’s art class (which is also the only class she is doing well in). Through her artwork, Melinda finds a way to express her pain and to finally face what happened to her.

How does Melinda’s parents react to her grades?

Her parents go through a range of tactics to help. They want to be helpful and encouraging, but their frustrating eventually begins to show, and they become angry at Melinda’s increasingly poor grades. Her parents do attempt to have Melinda seek out a tutor, but Melinda doesn’t do this.

Who is the protagonist of the book Speak?

The protagonist of Speak, Melinda begins high school (and the novel) traumatized by a rape that occurred at the hands of upperclassman Andy Evans at a party the summer before.

How does Melinda Sordino come out of her shell?

By the novel’s end, Melinda has begun to come out of her shell, opening up to her art teacher and to her former friend, Ivy. Her growth reaches its peak when she fights off Andy Evans as he attempts to rape her a second time, and subsequently finishes the drawing of a tree that she has been working on all year.