A Short Story: The Story Of Speak By Melinda Sordino

This is the story of Melinda Sordino, an ordinary fourteen year-old girl who is going to start freshman year in high school. This is obviously a very big step for anyone but she is dreading her first day more than anything. Melinda is starting high school with no friends and a horrible secret that she cannot discuss with anyone. From the very first step she takes that day, Melinda is alone. One night at a wild high school party during the summer, Melinda gets raped by one senior student from her own school. After she calls the police that night, her closest friends have abandoned her and random classmates now snub her simply because she couldn’t talk to anyone about it. As the story goes on, Melinda has an internal conflict with herself everyday

Another theme is finding one’s voice and recovery. Speak is a first-person, diary-like narrative. Written in the voice of Melinda Sordino, it features lists, subheadings, spaces between paragraphs and script-like dialogue. Throughout Speak, Anderson represents Melinda's trauma and recovery symbolically. After being raped, Melinda does not recognize herself in her reflection. Disgusted by what she sees, Melinda avoids mirrors. Melinda's aversion to her reflection illustrates acknowledgement of her fragmented identity. The reader follows Melinda through her daily life as a teenager. It shows all of the things she has to go through because of what happened to her, and how she copes with them. We're able to see how every aspect of her life is thrown into a tale spin, and just how hard it is for her to pull out and get back on course. Through the novel, she grows, changes and eventually learns how to use her voice once again. Readers share in the pain, anguish and bullying Melinda faces and become investing in the life of this young girl. The story is both captivating and interesting, and hard to put down once you've started

To the contrary, they serve a much more complex purpose. Her reminiscences show her attention to identity and the fluidity of identity change. To Melinda, these identity changes have mostly been negative. There are also times when Melinda wishes to protect her friends from this change.

3. What is the function of Melinda's closet?

Throughout the novel, Melinda wants to deflect attention from herself and conceal her thoughts. It thus makes sense that her safe haven would be an abandoned closet where she can shut herself away and see nobody. While she is in the closet, she has not opened up about her secret and not crossed a socially-charged line. It is only after she decides to leave her closet behind, and effectively come out, that she is willing to confess, and can show her inner voice to her peers.

4. What is the significance of Mr. Freeman acting as the recipient of Melinda's first spoken confession?

Mr. Freeman is first and foremost the character that most obviously reaches out to Melinda and emphasizes the importance of recognizing and expressing emotions, not stifling them. She rejects his help at first, but eventually decides to confess to him. This is a sign of her growth as a