Speak Character Analysis

Words: 574
Pages: 3
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Andrew Litchfield
Mrs. Coates
English 9 CP1 / A Block
15 November 2017

Melinda’s struggles with depression in Speak

In the novel, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda’s experience at the party changed how she acted for the rest of the school year. At the party at the end of the summer she was raped in the woods, and she chooses not to tell anyoneFor the beginning of the school year she is quiet and only has one “friend” who moved here from Ohio. In the middle of the book she becomes more depressed and morose. She also has no friends because Heather from Ohio left her because they were never “friends”. At the end of the book, Melinda realizes that she needs help, and she should speak up about what happened at the party.
After the party, …show more content…
Instead of just being quiet, she becomes depressed. This shows when her mother finds her in the closet trying to cut her wrist with a paper clip. This is one of the signs of depression, along with dropping grades, always being quiet and other things. Melinda shows all of these things in the middle of the school year/ book. It also becomes harder for her to talk, making her even quieter and more depressed because she cannot express herself “[Her] throat is always sore, [her] lips raw… Every time I try to talk to my parents or a teacher, I sputter and freeze. What is wrong with me?”(Anderson 50,51). She is so used to not talking and she hates it so much, she can barely talk anymore.

At the end of the book, she starts to realize that she needs to get help to treat her depression. One step to doing this is that she starts to talk to Rachel again, and she finally ends her silence about what happened at the party. She tells Rachel that she was raped at the party by Andy Evans. At first Rachel doesn’t believe it, but later at prom she ditches Andy. She also gets the idea that she shouldn’t hide anymore. She wants to start hanging out with her friends again instead of hiding in the old janitor's closet She starts to clean out her closet and bring the stuff home.
Throughout the book, Melinda’s personality changes from sad at the beginning, to very depressed in the middle, to starting to get better/ realizing that she needs help at the
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