A good influence, good mood/ positive outlook on life, and polite. These are some qualities that a good friend should have. Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson, young adult novel. Melinda Sordino would not make a good friend because she is a bad influence, she doesn’t speak up when she needs to and she often seems to be in a bad mood. A good friend is someone who helps you do the right thing, and Melinda Sordino is a bad influence and a bad friend. Stealing late passes to skip class and isolate herself in the old janitor’s closet, skipping full days of school, bad report card “Dad; Listen to me young lady. I’m only going to say this once. You get those grades up or your name is mud. Hear me? Get them up!” (Laurie Halse Anderson) Melinda’s bad grades, stealing late passes, and skipping school is certainly nothing to be proud of, and definitely nothing you would be proud to say your friend did. …show more content…
In addition to being a bad influence, Melinda Sordino doesn’t speak up when she obviously needs to, and even when she has the opportunity to.
Principal principal, mom, dad and melinda in principal’s office because Melinda has been skipping school- no talking from her when they try to help, when Melinda got a ride from Mr.Freeman (art teacher) and he said that she has a lot to say, and that he wants to hear it, Melinda closes the car door, cutting wrist with paperclip “Mom: I don’t have time for this Melinda. Me: “ (Laurie Halse Anderson) One of many good qualities in a friend is speaking up. If they can’t speak up for themselves when they really need to, how do you expect them to do the same for
you? Another reason Melinda is not a good friend is because she often times perceives a foul mood. Low self esteem from Andy Evans thing, chewing lips and MB scraping wrists with paperclips, turns down a date with David Petrakis “Melinda Two: The world is a dangerous place. You don’t know what would have happened. What if he was just saying his parents were going to be there?” (Laurie Halse Anderson) (after Melinda One tried to persuade to go) A good friend has a good mood. Melinda Sordino is not a good friend. Therefore, Melinda’s destructive behavior, silence at all the wrong times, and crummy mood all prove her to be a bad friend. Any person like Melinda is not someone you want to be friends with.
Throughout the passages, Laurie Halse Anderson establishes the Central Idea through the use of Characteristics and Imagery, revealing that the loudest words are the ones that aren’t spoken.
Rachel was Melinda's friend all of middle school but she turned out to be a complete jerk to Melinda. Heather was a fake friend who only stuck by her side until she was accepted in a ¨cool¨ group. David Petrakis is a nerd who is almost in every one of Melinda's classes. They grow close mostly because they both have no friends, but he is a true friend. Towards the end of the group Melinda starts to come out to Rachel about why she called the police, but Rachel just got even more upset. Melinda thankfully realizes how bad of a friend Rachel is on page 198 ¨I don't want to be cool. I want to grab her by the neck and shake her and scream at her to stop treating me like dirt. She didn't even bother to find out the truth – what kind of friend is that? ¨ Melinda gets close to her art teacher. Art is the one class that Melinda enjoys because she gets to be with her new friend Ivy. Ivy and David are the only people Melinda has, but that is enough for her. On the first day of school Melinda recalls being the only person sitting alone on page 134.¨ I see a few friends people I used to think were my friends—but they look away. ¨ Positively Melinda has found the two only true friends in her school and starts to become a more optimistic
In Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character Melinda refers to most of her teachers by nicknames only. From the start of the novel, she points out her teachers by nickname. First is her English teacher, who is nicknamed hair woman. Melinda says, “My English teacher has no face….I call her hairwoman.” (Anderson 6). Her social studies teacher is Mr. Neck. The Art teacher is Mr. Freeman. Out of all the teachers in this book Melinda only says one of their real names. Every other teacher has a nickname except Mr. Freeman. Nicknames that are given to teachers in the novel reveal the lack of connection Melinda has with them in order to show that they do not see that she is dealing with a hardship.
Lisa Delpit’s book, “The Skin We Speak”, talked about language and culture, and how it relates to the classroom. How we speak gives people hits as to where we are from and what culture we are a part of. Unfortunately there are also negative stereotypes that come with certain language variations. There is an “unfounded belief that the language of low income groups in rural or urban industrial areas is somehow structurally “impoverished” or “simpler” than Standard English” (Delpit 71). The United States is made of people from various cultures and speak many different variations of languages. As teachers we must be aware of some of the prejudices we may have about language and culture.
Ever since the party, Melinda rarely talked to anybody, including her parents. Nevertheless, I noticed that during the second semester of the year she talked considerably more. “All right, but you said we had to put emotion into our art. I don’t know what that means. I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel.”(p122). This quote is from the third marking period when Melinda was talking to her art teacher Mr.Freeman. I believe that she wouldn’t have said anything had it been earlier in the year. “Stinks. It was a mistake to sign up for art. I just couldn’t see myself taking wood shop.”(p.146). This quote is another example of Melinda talking, this time to Ivy in the mall. I think these quotes prove that Melinda starts talking more as the year progresses.
The plot of the book, Speak is that Melinda Sordino, a freshman at Merryweather High went to an end of the summer party with some of her friends. Things take a turn for the worst when a senior named Andy Evans sexually assaults her at the party without her friends knowing about it. Melinda is frightened, afraid, and does not know what to do so she calls 911 busting the party, and causing her friends and everyone at that school to hate her, even if they don’t know her.
Experiencing a traumatic event can be emotionally challenging; however, many people have shown significant psychological growth and positive psychological change as a result. Speak illustrates the story of a girl who grows stronger as she overcomes her traumatic life event. It demonstrates that by facing her trauma she is able to deal with difficult memories and emotions. As she comes to the realization that she is not responsible for her victimization, she is able to heal and recover. At first, she is negatively affected, but as she grows, she finds the courage to speak up for herself. In Speak written by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda’s personal growth is positively impacted by overcoming her depression, isolation,
Everyone has had that one moment, or maybe a couple. The moment when their life changes forever, the moments when they know they will never be the same person they were yesterday. These moments are turning points that play a large role in a person’s identity.
An example of a good friendship from this book is Nick and Gatsby. From chapter five on pages 60-61 it states “At eleven o’clock a man in a raincoat, dragging a lawn mower, tapped at my front door saying that Mr. Gatsby had sent him over to cut my grass.” I think that this is a good friendship because Nick invited Daisy over to Gatsby’s for tea knowing that Gatsby has
Imagine something really bad happened at a party while in high school, so the police get called because what happened was illegal. Before they arrive, everyone starts to yell because they think that whoever called the police called them because there was alcohol at the party. Now the friends have turned on that person. But at least there are still the parents to talk to, right? Nope. The person’s home life is so messed up that they barely talk to their family. Most of the time when they do, it is through a couple of notes on the refrigerator. If there is no one to talk to then why talk, right? This is exactly how Melinda feels in the book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson. In the story Melinda goes to a high school party before the summer of her freshman year. At the party, there was a senior that took interest in Melinda. Melinda and the senior, Andy, started kissing but Andy took things to the next level. When Melinda said, "no," Andy kept going. Melinda ended up getting raped. Because of this Melinda called the
Is it possible for someone surrounded by people to be lonely? In the novel Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson depicts Melinda Sordino as a young teen who is depressed due to something that occurred at a party. As a result Melinda has no friends and her grades are suffering. While Melinda is working on a project in art class, she receives comments from a classmate and her teacher, Mr. Freeman. Her classmate, Ivy says “It’s scary” “In a weird way”. Melinda thinks that the reaction is not what she wanted to hear. Melinda notices that Mr. Freeman is acting serious and examining her project and says he makes her nervous. Mr. Freeman says “This has meaning. Pain”. The bell rings and Melinda reacts by leaving before he can say more. It is possible that
When I signed up for ENGL 191 I did not know what to expect as I had never token an English class at the college level. The English classes I was used to be taught at the High School Level and they went like this, Teach them grammar rules then hold their hand with worksheets for every possible step of paper writing all the way from idea generation to submitting the final draft. This arbitrarily cookie cutter process frustrated me as I did not want to write down my sources in MLA format on a note card then paraphrase the source over 10 notecards then paraphrase the note cards onto my draft. Because of the way my English Class were I had an expectation of what was done covered and in an English Class. I figured that college would be similar with allot less handholding and when I signed up for 10 to 11:40 Tuesday, Thursday section I thought that it was going to be an hour and forty minutes of tedious discussion of Grammar Rules and the writing process according to the instructor. After six weeks of ENGL 191 my idea of what English is has completely changed. My new idea of what English is totally different then what I came into the class with. I thought English was teadoius
For this assignment, I chose to write about Virginia’s newly elected state representative, Danica Roem. On November seventh of this year, Roem defeated a thirteen-term incumbent, Robert G. Marshall, and became one of the nation’s first openly transgender elected officials. (Washington Post, 2017). This is not only a monumental achievement for the LGBT community because Roem is a transgender woman, but it is also an epic win because her opponent is a self-proclaimed homophobe, and was responsible for the “bathroom bill” that died in committee earlier this year. (Washington Post, 2017). In her speech that she made on Tuesday evening, Roem attacked her opponents’ stance on LGBT issues by stating, “discrimination is a disqualifier.” (Washington Post, 2017). She went on to discuss how she plans to celebrate the individual personalities of those whom she would be serving in the thirteenth district, and how she
On September 20, 2001 the President of the United States of American said a speech to the whole world. President George W. Bush said “whether we bring our enemies to justice, or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done”. The terrorist attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. He accused the Taliban, Afghanistan ruler’s of the attack’s that happened on that day. President told them “that you’re either with us or with the terrorist.” The nation’s that are harboring or supporting terrorism will be known as a hostile country’s to the President.
A good friend may not have all these traits. If someone is a gossip, you shouldn't get too close with him or her. If they are known for betrayal and being dishonest you should think about it and probably take one step away from them. According to the site “Being Friends,” friends should listen to each other, not put each other down to hurt one another, understand each others feelings, disagree without hurting each other, and be dependable and trustworthy. When finding friends you should look out for the good and the bad. See which traits are most important to you and make sure your friends have more good than bad traits. This will create compatible friends for you who hopefully remain with you for a lifetime!