Speak Book Report

Speak, written by Laurie Anderson, shows people the trials and tribulations that students in high school face like bullying, sexual assault, and pressure from parents to be perfect. The main character, Melinda Sordino is a victim of all these things. Many of these problems that Melinda faces stem from a party she attended in the summer. While this party was going on a boy at the school raped her, and she later called the police, which led to the arrest of multiple people at the party. Now she faces the hate and scorn from the people who used to call her friend. The theme of this book is that if someone wrongs you then instead of keeping quiet you should speak up for yourself. This is the right course of action because if you choose to keep …show more content…
Unlike Melinda, David Petrakis a gifted student in her class stood up when he believed he had been treated unfairly on page (56) “David: ‘The Constitution does not recognize different classes of citizenship based on time spent living in the country. I am a citizen, with the same rights as your son, or you. As a citizen, and as a student, I am protesting the tone of this lesson as racist, intolerant, and xenophobic.’” even if David is a student he chooses to stand up for what he believes in. When Mr.Neck tries to silence him and move on to a different topic David still chooses to fight and in the end he takes his punishment with grace instead of trying to fight it. Later in the book the same teacher tries to purposely give Melinda a bad grade by changing a project last minute on page (156) “The Suffragettes fought for the right to speak. they were attacked, arrested, and thrown in jail for daring to do what they wanted. like they were, I am willing to stand up for what I believe. no one should be forced to give speeches. I choose to stay silent.” This time David and Melinda used silence to resist Mr.Neck. These examples show that to take a stand you don’t actually have to speak up you just can’t let your abuser walk away