Have you ever had a secret that you held in for such a long time it started to bug you? Melinda Sordino from the book Speak has been holding in a major, traumatic secret. Along with holding in this major secret, things at school aren't going good either. Sometimes when you hold the truth in for too long it can be harmful to you, and it can cause self confidence issues.
Starting freshman year of high school, you want to have a solid group of friends by your side. So far things aren't going to good for Melinda. All of her old friends aren't talking to her anymore; they're giving her mean looks and basically acting like they don't even know her. I mean imagine that, going into a new school, with all older kids and you have no friends. That's definitely not the way she planned on starting her freshman year. In the summer before freshman year, something happened that would change Melinda's life forever. Andy Evans, an older guy raped her, something she never expected. What she really needs is someone to confide in, but she has no one.
Think of a time that you had no one on your side… that's the feeling that Melinda has every day. The problem is that she doesn’t have the confidence to speak the truth about what really happened at the summer party. In art class she got an assignment to draw trees. When she drew them, first the trees are dead, which represent how she feels no life inside herself, she feels alone, and she has no one. If she could just put herself out there then maybe there's a chance that people would start liking her, and stop thinking of her as such a bad guy. Personally I know from experience if you’re in a fight with a friend or something and you just talk to them about it usually everything works out. It’s just you have to take the initiative to make the first move.
Starting freshman year of high school, you want to have a solid group of friends by your side. So far things aren't going to good for Melinda. All of her old friends aren't talking to her anymore; they're giving her mean looks and basically acting like they don't even know her. I mean imagine that, going into a new school, with all older kids and you have no friends. That's definitely not the way she planned on starting her freshman year. In the summer before freshman year, something happened that would change Melinda's life forever. Andy Evans, an older guy raped her, something she never expected. What she really needs is someone to confide in, but she has no one.
Think of a time that you had no one on your side… that's the feeling that Melinda has every day. The problem is that she doesn’t have the confidence to speak the truth about what really happened at the summer party. In art class she got an assignment to draw trees. When she drew them, first the trees are dead, which represent how she feels no life inside herself, she feels alone, and she has no one. If she could just put herself out there then maybe there's a chance that people would start liking her, and stop thinking of her as such a bad guy. Personally I know from experience if you’re in a fight with a friend or something and you just talk to them about it usually everything works out. It’s just you have to take the initiative to make the first move.
Melinda never had enough confidence in herself to go talk to anyone, so in her case things just got worse… and worse… and worse. She suffered for such a long time because she had no one on her side. The way things got resolved for her probably wasn't the best but again at some point everything had to end. Andy Evans tried to rape her again, but this time someone caught him. The girl’s lacrosse team was in practice and they heard something so they came to see what was going on, and then they caught Andy. Finally, the truth could be known and people really knew what happened. Melinda finally got that sympathy and compassion that she always deserved. A knew beginning would start from there on out. People could finally know the real Andy Evans, not the one they all thought he was.
When you have something that’s bugging you, the best thing is to go talk to someone about it. If you don’t do anything about it, you’re not helping yourself. It will just be a problem for you every day until you get the weight off your shoulders. The best thing is to find a friend that you trust and tell them what’s really going on.
That's really good.
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