Lost One’s Weeping Turned to a Found One’s Smile

“When people don't express themselves, they die one piece at a time.”- Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak. This statement is especially true for Melinda in Speak, because the longer she keeps her past to herself, the more she destroys herself. Her problem roots from her trust issues, and while in good reason, it clearly blocks her progress in moving on. Melinda is a girl of few words, but she does try to communicate through her art, body language or posture, and speech, even if it is rare.
One of the first methods Melinda used to express her thoughts and feelings to other people was through her art. This method was considered ‘safe’ for Melinda because she didn’t have to spell anything out to anyone, so anyone could interpret it they way they saw her art. That …show more content…
This kind of communication still protects her almost because only the people who care about her enough to look for these cues catch them. This effectively shows to the more important people how she feels, but allows her to speak on it or not if she chooses. She often tells the reader that she tries to hide from teachers and other students by skirting around the edges of the class and other social groups. A good example of her physically reacting to something in her head is when she and David Petrakis are doing a frog dissection lab in Biology. "David pins her froggy hands to the dissection tray. He spreads her froggy legs and pins her froggy feet. I have to slice open her belly. She doesn't say a word. She is already dead. A scream starts in my guts-I can feel the cut, smell the dirt, leaves in my hair." (pg 81) Here, Melinda is directly comparing the frog’s situation to her own. This is one step in Melinda’s long process of realizing and accepting her rape. She faints after this because she still wasn’t quite ready to completely absorb and take in the entire