Melinda Sordino's Impact On Adolescent Life

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As Melinda Sordino is entering the 9th grade the unspeakable happens to her. This event impacts many facets of adolescent life. It change is her mentally, socially and emotionally. More importantly it changes who she associates herself with. After the incident, she starts to look at females and males differently. One could argue, that at some point in the novel she doesn’t associate herself with the female gender. However, when Melinda does begins to solve her problems and learns to advocate for herself, she starts to see females in a new light. Throughout the novel Melinda aims to distinguish herself from orthodox gender roles. The novel begins with Melinda seeing herself as an outsider. She observes the clans that her peers associate themselves …show more content…

However she learns that she must give the report orally for full credit. Uncomfortable with this idea, Melinda becomes a suffragette in her own right. She objects to giving a speech and exercises her right. She learns to stand up for herself by not speaking. After this occurrence she admires and aspires to be like females for the first time after the rape. This attaches Melinda to female empowerment. After receiving a D on the assignment, David compares her to female leaders and says, "But you got it wrong. The suffragettes were all about speaking up, screaming for their rights. You can't speak up for your right to be silent. That's letting the bad guys …show more content…

Melinda is impressed with David Petrakis when he has the bravery to stand up and tell Mr. Neck that "The Constitution does not recognize different classes of citizenship based on time spent living in the country. I am a citizen, with the same rights as your son, or you. As a citizen, and as a student, I am protesting the tone of this lesson as racist, intolerant, and xenophobic.” Melinda is awestruck on Davids ability to speak up in the face of a powerful authorities. It may be worth noting that David is speaking of social acceptance and that is one thing that Melinda desires to be. Mr. Freeman is also an motivating male role model. Although he doesn’t often help Melinda he has one quote which catalyzes Melinda speaking up: "He's not chopping it down. He's saving it. Those branches were long dead from disease. All plants are like that. By cutting off the damage, you make it possible for the tree to grow again. You watch by the end of summer, this tree will be the strongest on the block.” (187) This quote is special because it could be as easily applied to the tree as it could be to Melinda. Melinda must that sever dead, damaged branches, no matter how painful it may be to do so, in order to grow again. This quote gives the reader hope that once Melinda does this, like the oak tree, she will be one of the strongest (mentally)

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