Non-Verbal Communication In Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak For a teenager, life is about the choices people make. Teenagers judge others for who they choose to hang out with, what decisions they make, and how they treat others. At the same time, the actions of others can also alter someone’s life. How people treat someone, what they say to them, and their other non-verbal communication can affect someone’s overall personality and ultimately their current identity. In the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, this situation plays out with the main character, Melinda.
She becomes an outcast and is ridiculed by her friends due to her 911 call over the summer during a party. Her friends and others believe that she called the police for no reason, and that she only was trying to end or ruin the party. However, her call for help was actually due to her being raped by a boy named Andy Evans. This misunderstanding and ridicule is shown in Melinda’s explanation on the first day of school: “As they walk down the aisle, people who were my middle-school lab partners or gym buddies glare at me…
As we leave the last stop, I am the only person sitting alone” (1). Melinda’s isolation and and disconnect is a result of her choices, misunderstanding or not. However, her eventual identity does evolve from the actions of others, and the people around her. Although Melinda had a role in shaping her own identity, Melinda’s past friends, the people who do not understand her, and those who encourage her all affect Melinda’s new identity in both direct and indirect ways. The first people to shape Melinda’s current identity were her past friends (most noticeably Rachel), and Andy Evans.
Before the event occurred, Rachel was Melinda’s best friend. After the party happened, Rachel became rude and detrimental to Melinda’s identity: “Her eyes meet mine for a second. ‘I hate you,’ she mouths silently” (5). These simple words describe their new relationship. From this point on Rachel (now known as Rachelle) would only treat Melinda with hate and disregard. Melinda’s other old friends also follow Rachel’s lead, and treat Melinda the same way. These simple actions against Melinda eventually lead to a new, changed identity in Melinda’s life.
Melinda perfectly defined her new self in 3 words: “I am Outcast” (4). The other deep carver of Melinda’s life has been Andy Evans. Andy was the beginning of this entire change, as he was perpetrator/aggressor in Melinda’s rape. He (referred to as it) continues to treat her with the same attitude and plays the innocent around her, creating clear confrontation and misery in Melinda’s life: “IT is my nightmare and I cannot wake up. IT sees me. IT smiles and winks. Good thing my lips are stitched together… ” (46).
Andy’s actions, along with her ex-friend’s’ actions— caused a clear impact on Melinda’s identity. Their actions caused Melinda to change in various ways, the most painful being her reluctance to speak, and her metaphorical stitching her lips together Despite the fact that Melinda’s past friends and acquaintances caused the initial change in Melinda’s identity, Heather and Melinda’s parents only made the problem worse as well. Initially, Heather was good to Melinda. She was a bit of joy and happiness in Melinda’s life, and expressed a similar feeling of loneliness.
Heather then decided to quit being Melinda’s friend and ridicule her with her ‘martha’ friends, just because Melinda was depressed and going through problems she could not talk about. Melinda expresses her need of a friend just after Heather leaves her: “But not, I am desperate to be her pal, her buddy, to giggle with her, to gossip with her” (105). Heather was Melinda’s only friend, and only carved a more negative identity for Melinda through her selfish actions. This in turn causes Melinda to make more bad choices, and cut school.
Although Heather did not directly mean to hurt Melinda, her indirect actions aused more pain in Melinda’s life. Likewise, Melinda’s parents and their lack of understanding and knowledge of Melinda’s problem also affect Melinda in a similar way. Melinda’s parents are the kind of people who want to help their daughter and understand what’s going on. However, their approach to understanding is most often done in anger, or frustration. During a meeting with her parents and the principal, Melinda expresses her relationship with her parents and her problems, “[Inside my head] Would you listen? Would you believe me?
Fat chance” (114). Melinda’s parents often do fit this idealism that Melinda has, often telling her to fix her grades, habits, or life without asking what the problem is first. They even go as far as to say that understanding their daughter (Melinda) is a hopeless case. Alike Heather, Melinda’s parents do not want to hurt Melinda or her feelings. They are indirectly worsening Melinda’s identity through a lack of understand and sometimes compassion. These indirect ways of hurting someone often aren’t on purpose, but nevertheless, they hurt Melinda and cause her to go further into her negative way of thinking and lifestyle.
Albeit there are many people in Melinda’s life who hurt herboth directly and indirectly, Mr. Freeman, David, and eventually lvy all contribute into improving Melinda’s life and identity overall. Mr. Freeman is Melinda’s art teacher, and often works to open Melinda’s eyes and help her to express herself. Mr. Freeman often indirectly helps Melinda, but his direct quotes tend to be more powerful: “Melinda, you’re a good kid. I think you have a lot to say. I’d like to hear it” (123). The simple idea of letting her speak is what motivates her to voice her opinion, and speak up to Heather later in the story.
Mr. Freeman’s words help to make Melinda into more of a free person, and less confined to an event that happened months ago. Among Melinda’s new friends is David, who helps Melinda from time to time. He gives her more of a voice, and inspires her to speak up. David encourages Melinda to speak up when he is lecturing her about her silence: “You cannot speak up for your right to be silent. That is letting the bad guys win… do not expect to make a difference unless you speak up for yourself” (159). David also treats Melinda like a true friend, unlike any of her exfriends.
David acts a guide to Melinda, helping to bring her out of her darkness and attempting to give her a voice. Just like David, lvy has a similar role. Ivy used to be a mutual friend of both Melinda and Rachel (Melinda’s ex-best friend), until she decided to hang out with other people. Ivy started off the year treating Melinda with the same disrespect that Rachel did. By the end of the year, Ivy is the person Melinda chooses to tell indirectly. Ivy encourages Melinda to be herself, and helps to finally bring Melinda back to the point at which she was.
There are people in this world that hurt you, heal you, and choose to stay out of it. Mr. Freeman, David, and Ivy are the ones who choose to heal Melinda. Despite Melinda having a role in creating her own identity, Melinda’s past friends, the people who do not understand her, and those who help her all change Melinda’s new identity in both direct and indirect ways. People are changed by those around them, both directly and indirectly. Melinda’s tale is one that is relatable to many, and one of truth. There are things in life that may hurt, and there are people in life that can hurt.
Melinda proves that it is far better to speak up and face the result, positive or negative. Whether it ends in more understanding about the problem, or even less-speaking up is the way to be free from grief and internal pressures (like the ones Melinda faced). Melinda wraps up her experience in one final statement: “IT happened. There is no avoiding it, no forgetting. No running away, or flying, or burying, or hiding. Andy Evans raped me in August when I was drunk and too young to know what was happening. It wasn’t my fault. He hurt me. It wasn’t my fault. And I am not going to let it kill me. I can grow” (198)