Speak

Speak Blog:

I define myself by my history, what others think of me, what I think of myself, and by my family. I define myself by social standards, and my past. The characters in the novel "speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson do so as well. Melinda, the main character in "Speak" also defines herself by her history, what has happened to her. In accordance to that, she likewise defines herself by what others think of her. There was a time when Melinda had many friends, but after the party in which she called the cops, many people stopped talking to her and she became an outcast. She defines herself as an outcast because of that for most of the book. She doesn't really like herself, and she is hurting a lot because of it. She doesn't really like herself because of what happened that night at the party. This also leads to another aspect by which Melinda defines herself, and that is what she thinks of herself. It seems as if she thinks that she isn't worth much, she feels that she doesn't have a voice, that she can't tell anyone what happened to her. When she doesn't tell anyone what happened to her, she hurts even more, and its not true, she can tell people what happened to her, but she has lost her voice. It is unfortunate that Melinda sometimes defines herself by the standards of others, but she does. She defines herself as an outcast and doesn't think she she has a voice, and is too scared to speak.

Another character in the novel, Rachel/Rachelle, defines herself by her social image, and her friends. She acts "European" and experiments with Islam, amongst other things, in a seemingly attempt to recreate herself. She defines herself by whom she is around, who she hangs out with, which is the foreign exchange student crowd. It seems as if she wants this type of recognition, recognition for being different and "foreign."

People define themselves, who they are, by others opinion of them, what others think of them. People also define themselves by their social image they project, their friends, family, and their past. Melinda and Rachelle, characters in the novel Speak do define themselves along those guidelines. Melinda defines herself by what happened to her the night of the party, and how it affected her view of herself, how she defined herself, was enormous. She no longer felt that she had friends, she was an outcast, that she didn't have a voice. In contrast Rachel/Rachelle defined herself largely along her social image.