Rape In Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak

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Speak Essay Martnishn 1 One in 10 young Americans has committed an act of sexual violence (Freleng). Rape is a serious issue that negatively affects the victim and their family. Rape is when someone sexually touches another person without their consent. This most commonly happens to women but men can also fall victim to this awful crime. In the time that it takes a person to read this essay two people in the U.S alone will have been raped. In the novel Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main protagonist is a 9th grade girl named Melinda Sordino. During the summer of 8th grade, she is at a party and gets raped. She calls the cops but the rapist doesn't get into trouble, only the other kids do. Then during the school year the other kids hate …show more content…

"30% of rape victims had experienced at least one major depressive episode in their lifetimes" (Kilpatrick). To simplify that shattering statistic, that means almost 1/3 of all rape victims experience depression through out their lifetime. The victims of rape are often scared of telling people what happened because they don't want their identity to be known. "68% of all rape Victims are concerned of their identity being revealed to the public and becoming known for being a rape victim" (Kilpatrick). Women experience anxiety about their story being shown to the public. Rape victims also seem to develop PTSD similar to a war veteran. "Rape victims are 6.2 times more likely to develop PTSD than women who have never been victims …show more content…

Melinda can relate to this because of all the times that she was just thinking about the time she was raped made her feel stressed. Anxiety after rape can effect the amount of sleep a person gets. "AAETS conducted research saying that "A change in sleep patterns, more often or not the ability to sleep or stay asleep for any length of time. These symptoms create a huge deal of anxiety as survivors never know when the next sensation will occur. This anticipation and discomfort leads to arousal symptoms." When Melinda would think of being raped she wouldn't be able to fall asleep because of the amounts of anxiety that would build up. "I just want to sleep. The whole point of not talking about it, of silencing the memory, is to make it go away. I'll need brain surgery to cut it out of my head" (Anderson). Melinda's anxiety is keeping her up at night thinking about what happened that one night over the past

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