Analysis Of Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

Women Writers and Feminism

The first literature piece I decided to include in my bibliography is the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. The book is about a teenage girl, Melinda Sordino, who attended a party right before the beginning of her freshman year in high school. She called the cops while at the party location and was wrongly accused of intentionally busting it. Her peers quickly shunned her for what they thought she did. Melinda falls silent except for when she is in her art class. She uses art to express her suppressed feelings as she learns to acknowledge what she has gone through. Melinda was raped by one of her peers at the party. She called the cops after the attack to report it, but fell silent when the operator came on

the line. She was unable to verbalize what had happened. Eventually Melinda finds strength within herself with the help form her artistic expression and art teacher, Mr. Freeman, to tell speak the truth and once again regain her identity.
My second citation is for the poem “won’t you celebrate with me” from the piece The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 by Lucille Clifton.

Lucille’s poem captures a moment where she is reminiscing on her triumph of self-exploration. She refers that she has created herself from scratch and hasn’t used any background identities, such as her religion, culture, or birthplace as a means to define herself. She is confident of who she has become and proud of everything she has overcame to get to where she is. Although Lucille does not mention any of the obstacles she has faced, it is apparent that she has had her share of struggles. The poem is full of emotion and is

uplifting.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker is the third piece I picked for my bibliography. The story is composed of letters the main character, Celie, wrote to God or her sister, Nettie. Celie is emotionally, physically, and sexually abused by her father and seeks salvation in her faith. Celie has had two children to her father, but he has taken them both away shortly after birth. Her father eventually marries her to another man, but this is not an escape from abuse. Her husband rapes and demoralizes her just as her father had. Celie is oppressed continuously throughout the book, but still manages to find her inner strength. She is encouraged to stand up for herself by another character Sophia, which ultimately leads to her finding the willpower to leave her abusive husband and move away. She learns to support herself and is eventually reunited with her children.
The fourth literature piece I included is The Life and Loves of a She-Devil by Fay Weldon.

Ruth, initially portrayed as an abnormally large, ugly suburban housewife, is submissive to her husband’s rule over her. Bobbo tells her she is unconfident, clumsy and always at fault for what goes wrong and Ruth believes him. However, after her husband, Bobbo, confesses his love for another woman, Mary Fisher, Ruth decides she has had enough. After burning her and Bobbo’s house down, Ruth sets off on a journey full of revenge. She earns an education, gets a job, and secures herself financially by secretly stealing money from Bobbo. As she transforms her inner self, she undergoes multiple procedures to reconstruct her entire body to look like Bobbo’s lover. Ruth reclaims her identity and strength and comes to have power over

Bobbo.
My final choice for my bibliography is I am Malala written by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb. Malala, who was fifteen at the time, was shot by the Taliban in Pakistan for actively supporting education for herself and other young girls. She was attacked while on her bus ride home from school. Against all odds, Malala survived. In 2014, she was the younger person to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Today she continues to work as an advocate for education all over the world. Her memoir discusses her family history and the dreams of equality that her family, particularly her father, implanted in her as a young child.
While deciding the texts I wanted to include in my bibliography, I tried to find a variety of literature pieces with all different types of stories in order to offer the realization that feminists and women writers are not limited to any specific event or topic. Instead, feminism is found throughout every culture, every age, and all socioeconomic statuses. I wanted my bibliography to represent all different kinds of women in order to show women writers as a community. Feminism, especially when used in literature, expresses the push and fight for equality between sexes and races. I found that each piece, although very different, all were in support of women’s rights. In addition, I looked for a transformation of the main character. This is an important aspect of women writing because a change in character shows how women overcome some of the most challenging obstacles in order to once again reclaim themselves. Each piece illustrates a strong-willed woman who has taught herself to love and fight for herself and all other women, even when society and those surrounding her told her not to. One last factor I used to compile my list, was the presence of abuse, whether it was emotional, physical, sexual, discriminatory, or verbal specifically inflicted by a male. It seemed that whenever a patriarchal social system was in place, men used their leadership as an excuse to abuse women. To this day, some men believe they have power and dominance over women which usually results in abuse. Feminist literature is used to actively fight for the equality of the female gender and represent the struggles women face.
A common theme I found in each literature piece of my bibliography is a combination of fractured identity and women empowerment. The women in these texts reach a breaking point where they no longer will accept their current situation. They have lost themselves and fallen inferior resulting in a broken identity. For example, in The Color Purple, Celie finally finds the courage to leave her abusive husband. Before she takes off on her journey, she curses his name and expresses her true feelings towards him which she never would have done in the past for fear of being hit (Walker 175-176). Alice walker is showing the reader the power women truly have. She goes from refusing to fight back to finding the bravery to confidently stand up for herself. Women writers represent stories of women who through self-liberation reconstruct themselves. After recovering their identity, women feel proud of who they are. This is shown in Lucile Clifton’s poem where she asks the reader to celebrate with her (Clifton 427). She, like many other feminists, has triumphed.
I recommend these works because they are encouraging to any feminist who reads them. Many contain heavy subjects, but I think it is important to discuss such raw events. For example, in Speak, when Melinda is raped at a high school party. Part of Melinda’s reason for being silent is because she couldn’t accept what happened to her, but when she finally acknowledged the truth, she began to heal. Women writers and feminist work to help others by empowering them and showing them what is capable. These literature pieces are motivational and comforting to anyone who has ever had a life-changing experience and feel like they are alone. As mentioned before, these works express the community of feminist who are all working towards common goals. My bibliography represents the principles of women writers and feminism

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. Puffin, 1999.
Clifton, Lucille, Kevin Young, Michael S. Glaser, and Toni Morrison. ““won’t you celebrate with me.” The collected poems of Lucille Clifton 1965 - 2010. Rochester, NY: BOA Editions, 2012. pp. 427.
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. Hardcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982.
Weldon, Fay. The Life and Loves of a She-Devi, Ballantine Books, 1985.
Yousafzai, Malala, Christina, Lamb. I am Malala. Little, Brown and Company, 2015.