Laura's Journal Entry #4

First off, I’d like to touch on the way Melinda has developed throughout the book. At the beginning of the novel, I’ll be honest, Melinda irritated me, I couldn't understand her, and it would be an understatement to say the attitude she had towards life aggravated me. However, during the last fifty pages or so of this book, I've fallen in love with the person she’s become. She starts to care. She spends good time and effort cleaning her lawn, and gardening, she puts her everything into a school project, and etcetera. I feel so proud of Melinda, almost as a parent would of their own daughter. She is getting things back on track, which after a period of such deep depression is so hard to do. I personally find it extremely inspirational the things she is able to do. I feel as if finally being on this “peak” during a life-long journey of peaks and valleys, is not only affecting her, but the people around her as well. Mel’s and her belligerent-behaving parents are now a unified family. Now that she is her true self, she is able to make and rekindle relationships that are real, and do not take advantage of her well-being, such as those with David, and former friends Rachel and Ivy. Although Melinda’s optimistic attitude is great, it is not until the end of the chapter she has truly transformed. When Melinda is attacked for the second time by Andy Evans, she yells, she fights rape, grabbing a shard of glass and pinning Andy’s throat with it. This for me, is undeniably the most touching, amazing moment in the entire book. She was the one that took control, spoke out. A theme-involving quote from Speak reads, “When people don’t express themselves, they die one piece at a time.” Melinda was nearly dead, and according to the meaning of this quote, at that moment, she could not be more alive. Looking back to the theme of transformation, like Melinda’s carving of a tree she’s been struggling to perfect through the entire novel (symbolism), Mel was a mess, she felt unloved, broken. However after she finally stands up for herself she is able to finish her tree, and it is beautiful; hurt and imperfect, but strong, beautiful, and unique, just like Melinda.