In the book, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, I have been thinking about the characters in the book and what they portray. Melinda Sordino, the main character of the book, got busted at an end-of-summer party calling the cops so her old friends won't talk to her and the people who she doesn't know hate her from a distance. But characters like Mr. Freeman (her art teacher) and Heather, (her recent former friend) portray actions that Melinda would soon learn towards the end of the book (hopefully); what teenagers go through their everyday life.
On the first day of art class, Mr. Freeman tries to explain to his students that art is a way of expressing yourself that numbers and letters cannot do. He says, (Page 10, Paragrah 5)
"Do not come here and ask me to show you how to draw a face. Ask me to help you find the wind."
When I first read these two lines, it shocked me because no one normally says that. It sounds so unique to me and Melinda should really take it into consideration. She, as of right now, became a very anti-social person and doesn't really know where she wants to take her life in general. So she should really consider Mr. Freeman as being her mentor of becoming herself. Also, when Heather and Melinda were at Heather's house, Heather spoke from her mind and told Melinda what she thinks of high school. She says, (Page 34, Paragraph 2)
"Why is it so hard to make friends here? Is there something in the water? In my old school I could have gone out for the musical and worked on the newspaper and chaired the car wash. Here people don't even know I exist. I get squished in the halls and I don't belong anywhere and nobody cares. And you're no help. You are so negative and you never try anything, you just mope around like you don't care that people talk about you behind your back."
I know, I know, this doesn't sound like a life changing qoute, like the other but the thing was is that what Heather said was right, in her scenrio. Looking deeper into these lines, high school is very different than elementary and middle school and things can be very unexpected but I really don't quite understand how Melinda could just sit there and hear this and it doesn't make an effect on her. Even though she apologize after, I'm just wondering how Melinda didn't think for a moment that her actions impacted her ways and change. Melinda should really consider Heather thoughts and really make a change right there and then.
Laurie Halse Anderson, the author, is trying to say throughout the qoutes is that things that people say to you should be taken into cosideration and you should learn from it. You shouldn't ignore the things that people tell you like Melinda. I wouldn't even hang around people like her because that's just plain stupid and desperate. But even though your actions speak louder than your words, sometimes it's just the other way around. Even I didn't consider the important things people told me until now. So just to sum it up, appreicate the things people tell you. It's life chaging.
When I was a little girl, people (generally my parents) will tell me things that I really didn't give a care. But the thing was that everytime I didn't pay attention, my dad, especially my dad, would become angy and more angry so eventually after time, I started to pay attention and the things that he told me actually made me think and change. Even the letter in the very beginning of the book relates to what I'm saying.
Dear Friends,
Speak is the book that I wasn't going to write. Why would I want to revisit the agonies of adolescence? Wasn't the point of surviving to adulthood- so I could break out the traumas of being a teenager?
Eleanor Roosevelt said, "You must do the thing you think you cannot do."
So I tried. I wrote the book. I never thought anyone would publish it. I never dreamed it would earn any awards. I never imagined that it would be taught in schools, that a movie be based on it, or that something like the Platinum Edition would be unveiled. This has all been an unexpected, remarkable ride........"
You see what I mean?
