Examples Of Social Constructs In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

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Many people in the world are like puppets. They move to the commands of others. Once in awhile, the puppet obtains a will of its own and moves against the crowd. Ivy, from Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, became that one puppet who moved against the crowd, with the crowd being social constructs. A social construct is something that the society makes true even though to other people, it has no value. There are many examples of social conflicts throughout the book and the clans or groups in school are social constructs. The main character, Melinda, struggled to fit into these categories causing her to be the Outcast to society. Nobody seems to want to truly befriend Melinda, causing her to be alone. Although Melinda is ostracized by her society Even though Melinda’s society rejected her, Ivy becomes an important friend to Melinda. Ivy supported Melinda and made her feel confident when Melinda wasn’t too happy. An instance of this is when Ivy helped Melinda feel better when she was down. After Melinda tried to talk to Rachel, and got rejected, Ivy noticed how depressed Melinda was and she tried to make her feel better. As the book states, “Someone touches my arm gently. ‘Melinda?’ It’s Ivy. ‘Can you take the late bus? I want to show you something.’... There’s more. Different pens, different handwriting, conversations between some writers, arrows to longer paragraphs. It’s better than taking out a billboard. I feel like I can fly” (Anderson 185-186). Ivy was trying to make Melinda feel better because she could tell how sad Melinda was. When the author writes “Different pends, different handwriting, conversations between some writers, arrows to longer paragraphs”, she’s trying to show the reader that Melinda has the support of many people so instead of being thrown around like a rag doll, these people gave her strength and became her backbone. They allowed her to stand up and resist being tossed around. As the

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