Saturday, December 11, 2010

Speak Book Post #2

This is the part where we actually find out what happened to Melinda. I do not know if it is a spoiler, but without it, this post would be meaningless to the readers.

Melinda got raped by IT. IT is Andy Evans. The guy that offered Melinda a bite of his jelly doughnut and she ran away.

When I read that part, I instantly wanted to go back to the beginning of the books and figure out how the rape fits in to Melinda and how she's acting.

After reading the second part, with Melinda's grades and her problems at school, it seems like she doesn't care about anything else but what had happened to her. What me and my group discussed was how the rape does affect her life at home and at school.

For school, it would be her grades and the teachers. We also discussed why Melinda calls her teachers by her nickname, but that's for another time. Her grades, event though she never does send out that feeling in the book: "I was raped." I kind of thought she was just depressed.

Also, what our group talked about was how Melinda struggles with her grades. From what my group gathered, we made a theory of some sort that if Melinda would speak out and not be afraid of saying what she wants to say, then she would live a much better life than the one she has right now in the book.

 One last thing my group talked about was the closet that Melinda decides to take over as her own 'home'. John asked what this could symbolize to Melinda. We all sort of agreed upon this place as being the only place that Melinda can trust. The only place where she could be herself and not have to worry about being asked anything.

Speaking of symbolism, there was also a mention of that in the book, where Hairwoman wants the class to analyze The Scarlet Letter and figure out what symbols are in there. Our group discusses how symbolism is a part of Melinda's life. From naming the teachers by their nicknames and also the closet itself.

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