Laurie Halse Anderson's, Speak , dives into the murky, muddy waters of adolescent rape culture. When the book was published in 1999, rape was not a comfortable topic to discuss with adults, let alone teenagers. Anderson writes about Melinda Sordino and her freshman high school experience which is turning out to be rather negative. Soriano stands as a thriving young role model for struggling teenage girls all over the world. Although she isn't an outstanding student or have plenty of friends to juggle, through Melinda, other young women can see that it's completely normal and okay to struggle in high school not only academically, but socially and emotionally. One of my favorite parts of the novel isn't a super obvious quality. Throughout the novel, Melinda's attitude changes and grows with the coming of spring and through nature and art, she learns to move past her troubling end of summer experience and once again find the importance of her voice. Melind...
Not only did she completely lose her innocence by being raped, but it was also taken advantage of by her step-father, the uncle husband, aunt Bimla, etc. Several people took advantage of a child, and in the process she lost herself. You did a great job incorporating her loss of innocence in such a sad novel.
ReplyDeleteReally awesome view on the book! Just the depravity that the world has resorted to is heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteI agree that she never really lost her innocence, which was really refreshing. While reading this book, I was hoping that she would become a shrewd, savage of a "woman." I constantly reminded myself that she was just thirteen. I wondered how old the other girls were and how long they had been there; some of them definitely were not as innocent as Lakshmi.
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