A boy shoots himself because of bullies and no one is there to recognize his struggle. A teenage girl sits in her room cutting herself contemplating suicide after her uncle sexually assaults her. Sitting alone at lunch after your friend abandon you for a more popular reputation. Why do teenagers get treated like this and no one seems to notice? Is this isolation and depression stage in life avoidable? In her novel, Speak, Anderson exposes society’s tendency to ignore the challenges of teen life; she further reveals how an individual who fails to receive adequate care following assault will resort to negative coping strategies that prolong the trauma.
Anderson introduces the main character, Melinda, as the outcast in school who goes home and is still alone. She is alone metaphorically and literally. Nobody is home to greet her or ask her about her day. Melinda returns “home to a note that says ‘Pizza, 555-4892. Small tip this time.’Clipped to the note is a twenty-dollar” (Anderson 14) and this is how Melinda's parents communicate with her on a regular basis. Anderson reveals the different family styles kids will grow up with and how this affects them. Her parents show a lack of interest in her…show more content… In an interview with a teenage girl she says, “ I used to be best friends with two girls. We weren’t popular, we weren’t that pretty, but we had fun together. When we came to this school, we were placed in different classes. I stopped being friends with them and left them to be popular” (Talbolt). In high school, reputation and identity is something all students search for. Anderson leads into this idea by the school mascot of Merryweather High School constantly changing (Constantakis 259). The high schools’ continuously changing mascot represents the students’ lack of identity. Melinda is struggling through high school with her family, friends, and her own identity
