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.