Response to Speak

Cayla Nardiello 808

            Have you ever felt alone? Trapped in a hole dug so deep that no one would listen to you? What if they were wrong? What if they hated you for all of the wrong reasons?

What if you didn’t know how to ask for help? In the heart-felt novel, ‘Speak’ by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character, Melinda, is out casted by her school, and abandoned by her friends. I think the main theme of ‘Speak’ is isolation, and what it feels like to be left in the dark in your greatest time of need.

            Melinda desperately needs help, but she doesn’t know how to ask for it. One example of this is; “Deprived of Victim, Mom and Dad holler at each other. I turn up the music to drown out the noise.” This tells me that Melinda even feels isolated from her parents because their fighting drives her away. Also, her parents are fighting with each other because in a way, they know she has a problem, they just don’t know how to get her to explain, so they can help her. Another example of isolation is; ” They swallow her whole and she never looks back at me. Not once.” This would only worsen her isolation issues. Instead of being with someone she could trust, she is left by her only friend, Heather, when she needed the comfort the most.

            In all, Melinda has had a traumatic experience that isolation will only worsen. Her friends and parents are just worsening her fear of letting the truth out. She really needs time to process her experience and come to her own conclusions about it. But she also needs the support of friends and family in order to heal. One great thing about Melinda is that she recognizes that her isolation is harmful and takes steps to reconnect with others.

Blog Post on “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Cayla Nardiello 808

            Hester Prynne is a symbol of defiance. Through out the book, “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne; Hester learns to accept her humiliating mark. And eventually it’s meaning, ‘Adultery’, becomes ‘Able’. Even the towns’ people start to see her in a new light. I think Hester begins to question what the ‘A’ really means to her, and if she wants to live with that meaning forever. Her actions are very bold and defiant, leading me to think she is not only strong mentally, but she can endure, and yet be defiant towards her ex-husband, who is responsible for her pain.

Hester is very strong mentally. One example of this is;” So speaking, she undid the clasp that fastened the scarlet letter, and, taking it from her bosom, threw it to a distance among the withered leaves. The mystic token alighted on the hither verge of the stream. With a hand’s breadth farther flight it would have fallen into the water, and have given the little brook another woe to carry onward, besides the unintelligible tale which it still kept murmuring about.” This shows that she easily discarded the scarlet letter. But later on, her daughter, Pearl, will not come near her because she doesn’t recognize her as her mother. So Hester reluctantly puts the heavy burden of the letter back on. Another example of Hester’s inner strength is; “Nevertheless,” said the mother calmly, though growing more pale, “this badge hath taught me,—it daily teaches me,—it is teaching me at this moment,—lessons whereof my child may be the wiser and better, albeit they can profit nothing to myself.” This shows that even though Hester is shamed with her child, who was born a sin, she concerns herself with letting the child live a better life than she did, and to teach her child not to make the same mistakes.

In all, what is most remarkable about Hester Prynne is her strength of character. Her inner strength, her defiance of convention, her honesty, and her compassion may have been in her character all along, but the scarlet letter she is shamed to wear brings all her strengths to our attention. She is, in the end, a survivor.