Talk:Speak

For more information about Date Rape Prevention and how to get help, here is a great article for teens: 

I AM READING SPEAK. testing, testing.

Here are some thoughts, clarifications and inquiries in no particular order that might be useful, who knows.

First, for people like me who have been used to the school system where you go from elementary school to junior high and then to high school in three different locations and institutions, it might have seeemed weird that although the book begins with Melinda's first week of high school, she seems to be familiar with the students and teachers around there. I guess it turns out that she was in a school that sort of combines junior high with high school... not that big of a point, but hey, I was confused.

On to some other thoughts along the way:

What's particularly interesting, or perhaps better yet, ironic, is that Melinda seems very pigeonholed, yet she returns the gesture. She feels judged by her friends (well, ex-friends) and even by other students whom she has never met because of her "NARCing" on the sweetest party of the summer, ultimately getting some of those students arrested. She even turns a distaste to the teachers who pigeonhole her too. You might remember her account of getting busted for not having a hall pass on page 9: "I knew you were trouble the first time I saw you. I've taught here for twenty-four years and I can tell what's going on in a kid's head just by looking in their eyes." My point is that although she feels she's being unfairly attacked and that these labelmakers are not bothering to find out the truth (about her as a person AND about the party), she has employed the same tactic. She describes unfavorly and gives names to both students and teachers alike, such as "Mr. Neck, The Basketball Pole and Hairwoman, and she has an extensive list of names for the different cliques including "Human Waste, Eurotrash, Jocks, Goths, Shredders, etc." Now, we don't know if this is deliberate retaliation or if it's just the author's way of showing the predictable adolescent psyche, but in any case, I thought it was amusing.  I should point out that Melinda does not make up names for everybody... her art teacher Mr. Freeman gets to keep his.  What's that say?

The sad part of her being labeled is that she begins to believe them. Her somewhat forced isolation (I'm sure if she really wanted to, she could make friends with the chess club, or the Idiot Savants, who were probably not at the party and don't really care that it was broken up.....OH! But look at me, now I'm the pigeonholer.... anyhow, that's not the matter; point being, there's probably someone out there besides the new girl), has sent her into a pessimistic spiral. She doesn't even want to look at herself: "I get out of bed and take down the mirror. I put it in the back of my closet, facing the wall." HOW INTERESTING THIS IS! ... it turns out that the reflection in the mirror at the back of the closet is a more accurate depiction of her than her present reflection. In the closet, the mirror shows utter darkness, silence, disenfranchised being--exactly what she has become. But when she looks into the mirror she muses that it "looks like [her] mouth belongs to someone else, someone [she] doesn't even know" (17). Melinda will mention a closet yet again, though it is the one not in her bedroom, but at school: "This closet is abandonment--it has no purpose, no name. It is the perfect place for me" (26).

Until I return, I'll leave a simple, different thought. Melinda is stuck in the social scene, and doesn't want Heather's help; she is stuck in the art classroom at times, and does want Mr. Freeman's help. Don't know what to say about that just yet.

1,2,3
Although Melinda is using "tactics" of judgement, she is staying with in the norm. The only people that Melinda seems to dislike for their judgement are her ex-friends. We all judge in one form or another. Melinda does not blame the other students for treating her the way they do. In fact, in some ways I do not thinks she minds. She isolates herself from them just as much as they isolate her. Would you stand up in a school and tell people why they should not treat you like a Narc if you had such a secret to hide. She was RAPED. Who would want to hear that on top of which that are not many people to would amit that. She didn't want to be apart of them, not really. She may have longed to but that would be in the sense of being normal. I think that part of her relized she wasn't really a typical high school girl anymore.

Master Chief's Thoughts

Excuse my language, but Andy was a fucking piece of shit. People like him should die, and I don’t mean a peaceful death, I am talking about a painful and brutal death. I don’t care what anyone says, people like him should die. What the fuck was he thinking? He ruined a person’s life. I mean all along, Mel was blaming herself for everything. He took a lot away from her. Who the hell gave him that right? I feel nothing but anger toward that cowardly ass-hole. Fuck him, fuck anyone like him. I don’t give a shit if this gets edited, I will keep posting it if it does. This book really touched some of my emotions and I am here to SPEAK, try to edit it, try to silence me, but you can’t. He should have gotten his throat sliced open at the end, but I'm glad he didn’t, because that is not painful enough. Fuckin ass-hole!!

Death is too easy, life is the hard part... Why would you want him dead? By the end of the book the whole world knows he’s a rapist; his teachers, his classmates, his girlfriend, even his parents must have been told. Wouldn’t you rather let him live out his miserable life; watch him suffer for years over what he did as apposed to allowing him a quick death/release from torment? You’re really much nicer then I am…I say let him live, he’ll suffer more that way. Hell is nothing compared to what your mind is capable of doing to you while you still live. But like I said, you're nicer then I am.

Sorry
I wanted to apologize for posting the chartater discriptions in the wrong place the first time I tried to play on our wiki page. I just now figured out how to fix it, so I moved it to where it should be. It makes me wonder how I got the summary in the right place on the first try. Go figure. Anyway I just wanted to to know I will be better from now on.