Emily's Journal Entry #3

In the third part of Laurie Halse Anderson's book, Speak, we see that Melinda is starting to come out of her shell little by little and talking to people. Not about her issues really, but she's talking to her parents a bit, she's talking to a girl in her art class named Ivy, as well as her lab partner David Petrakis. This took a lot of guts for Melinda because we know she is really introverted. Another huge step for Melinda was she finally said no to Heather when she showed up at her house, telling her that she hates the Marthas, and that Mel was so smart to leave that group, but then asked Melinda to help her set up decorations for prom that the Marthas dumped on her. Well, she didn't really even ask Melinda, she kind of assumed that she would help her, which is somewhat Melinda's fault because she never spoke up about anything which made Heather assume that Melinda would never refused anything when she asked her to do it. Heather's reaction when Melinda said no really irritated me because, what was she expecting? That Melinda was just going to forgive her for abandoning her to the shadows? Well she was wrong, and when Melinda said that she had to leave, she left in a huff because she didn't get her way as she usually does with Melinda. Some symbols of Melinda's growth as a person is shown through her art work. Her trees have been getting better in detail, but never quit right, representing that she's opening up to people but never all the way. Melinda is becoming more tolerable as a character, which is changing my negative feelings towards the book into more positive ones.