Speak (Anderson novel)

The summer before her freshman year of high school, Melinda Sordino meets senior Andy Evans at a high school party. During the party, Andy rapes Melinda. In shock, Melinda calls 9-1-1, but does not know what to say and runs home. The police come and break up the party, and some people are arrested. Melinda does not tell anyone what happened to her, and nobody asks. Melinda is befriended by Heather, a girl who is new to the community. However, once Heather realizes that Melinda is depressed and an outcast, she ditches Melinda to sit with the "Marthas," a group of girls who seem charitable and outgoing, but are actually selfish and cruel. As Melinda's depression deepens, she begins to skip school, withdrawing from her already distant parents and other authority figures, who see her silence as means of getting "attention". She slowly befriends her lab partner, David Petrakis, who encourages her to speak up for herself.

Near the end of the book, Melinda's ex-best friend Rachel, who has been dating Andy, breaks up with him on prom night after Melinda tells her what really happened at the party. Realizing only one other person could've told Rachel, Andy attacks Melinda in the abandoned janitor's closet, Melinda's "sanctuary". Melinda fights back against Andy and is able to get help in time. When word spreads about what happened and the truth about that night is revealed, the students no longer treat Melinda as an outcast but as a hero instead. Melinda tells her story to her art teacher, Mr. Freeman, and she regains her voice.

Speak is written for young adults and middle/high school students. Labeled a problem novel, it centers on a character who gains the strength to overcome her trauma.[1][2] The rape troubles Melinda as she struggles with wanting to repress the memory of the event, while simultaneously desiring to speak about it.[2] Knox College English Professor Barbara Tanner-Smith calls Speak a trauma narrative, as the novel allows readers to identify with Melinda's struggles.[1] Hofstra University Writing Studies and Rhetoric Professor Lisa DeTora considers Speak a coming-of-age novel, citing Melinda's "quest to claim a voice and identity".[3] Booklist calls Speak an empowerment novel.[11] According to author Chris McGee, Melinda is more than a victim.[2] Melinda gains power from being silent as much as speaking.[2] McGee considers Speak a confessional narrative; adults in Melinda's life constantly demand a "confession" from her.[2] Similarly, author and Florida State University Professor Don Latham sees Speak as a "coming-out" story.[4] He claims that Melinda uses both a literal and metaphorical closet to conceal and to cope with having been raped.[4]

One theme of Speak is finding one's voice.[2] Another theme in the novel is identity.[4] The story can also be viewed as speaking out against violence and victimization.[12] Melinda feels guilty, even though she was a victim of sexual assault. Yet, by seeing other victims, like Rachel, Melinda is able to speak.[12] Some see Speak as a story of recovery.[1][4] According to Latham, writing/narrating her story has a therapeutic effect on Melinda, allowing her to "recreate" herself.[4]

Speak is a first-person, diary-like narrative. Written in the voice of Melinda Sordino, it features lists, subheadings, spaces between paragraphs and script-like dialogue. The fragmented style mimics Melinda's trauma.[1][2] The choppy sentences and blank spaces on the pages relate to Melinda's fascination with Cubism.[2] According to Chris McGee and DeTora, Anderson's writing style allows the reader to see how Melinda struggles with "producing the standard, cohesive narrative" expected in a teen novel.[2][3] Melinda's distracted narrative reiterates the idea that "no one really wants to hear what you have to say".[2] In her article, "Like Falling Up into a Storybook", Barbara Tannert-Smith says,

"In Speak, Anderson of necessity has to employ a nonlinear plot and disruptive temporality to emphasize Melinda's response to her traumatic experience: the novelist has to convey stylistically exactly how her protagonist experiences self-estrangement and a sense of shattered identity".[1]

By disrupting the present with flashbacks of the past, Anderson further illustrates the structure of trauma.[1] Anderson organizes the plot around the four quarters of Melinda's freshman year, starting the story in the middle of Melinda's struggle.[3] Anderson superimposed the fragmented trauma plot-line upon this linear high school narrative, making the narrative more believable.[3]

Throughout Speak, Anderson represents Melinda's trauma and recovery symbolically.[1] Barbara Tannert-Smith refers to Speak as a "postmodern revisionary fairy tale" for its use of fairy tale imagery.[1] She sees Merryweather High School as the "ideal fairy tale domain", featuring easily categorized characters—a witchy mother, a shape-shifting best friend, a beastly rapist.[1] Mirrors, traditional fairy tale tools, signify Melinda's struggle with her shattered identity.[1][4] After being raped, Melinda does not recognize herself in her reflection. Disgusted by what she sees, Melinda avoids mirrors. According to Don Latham, Melinda's aversion to her reflection illustrates acknowledgement of her fragmented identity.[4] In fact, the only mirror Melinda can "see herself" in, is the three-way mirror in the dressing room.[1][4] Rather than giving the illusion of a unified self, the three-way mirror reflects Melinda's shattered self.[1][4] Likewise, Melinda is fascinated by Cubism, because it represents what is beyond the surface.[1][4] Melinda uses art to express her voice. Her post-traumatic artwork illustrates her pain.[1] The trees symbolize Melinda's growth.[1] The walls of Melinda's closet are covered in her tree sketches, creating a metaphorical forest in which she hides from reliving her trauma.[1] According to Don Latham, the closets in the story symbolize Melinda's queer coping strategies.[4] Melinda uses the closet to conceal the truth.[4]

Anderson incorporates precursor texts that parallel Melinda's experience.[1] In the story, Melinda's English class studies Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, which features similar fairy tale imagery.[1] Hester Prynne, an outcast protagonist like Melinda, lives in a cottage at the edge of the woods. Hester's cottage parallels Melinda's closet.[1] For both women, the seclusion of the forest represents a space beyond social demands.[1] The deciphering of Hawthorne's symbolism mimics the process faced by readers of Melinda's narrative.[1] Similarly, Anderson connects Melinda's trauma to that of Maya Angelou, author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Melinda places a poster of Angelou in her closet. She admires Angelou because her novel was banned by the school board. Melinda and Angelou were both outcasts.[1] Like Melinda, Angelou was silenced following her childhood rape.[4]

Speak is a New York Times Best-Seller.[13][14] The novel received several awards and honors, including the American Library Association's 2000 Michael Printz Honor[15] and the 2000 Golden Kite Award. It was also selected as a 2000 ALA Best Book For Young Adults.[16][17] Speak gained critical acclaim for its portrayal of the trauma caused by rape.[18] Barbara Tannert-Smith, author of "Like Falling Up Into a Storybook: Trauma and Intertextual Repetition in Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak.", claims the story's ability to speak the reader's language brought about its commercial success.[1] Publishers Weekly says, Speak's "overall gritty realism and Melinda's hard-won metamorphosis will leave readers touched and inspired".[19] Ned Vizzini, for the New York Times, calls it "different", "a grittily realistic portrait of sexual violence in high school."[20] Author Don Latham calls Speak "painful, smart, and darkly comic".[4]

Farrar Straus Giroux announced a graphic novel adaptation of Speak with art by Emily Carroll.[36] It was published in February 2018.[37]

• Rape trauma syndrome

• Laurie Halse Anderson's Blog