Critical Analysis 10 Page Paper on Ptsd

"It is easier not to say anything. Shut your trap, button your lip, can it. All that crap you hear on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie. Nobody wants to hear what you have to say.” (Anderson 9) Melinda Sordino is a distraught teenager who is entering high school in a withdrawn, depressed, and neglected state of mind. After the summer when she called the cops on a party she went to, everyone turned against her. They did not understand what happened to her, and assumed that she just called because everyone was drinking. Melinda holds the truth back from everyone which is that she had been raped. It scars Melinda and keeps her from being social and she is drawn into a state of depression and silence. In Laurie Halse Anderson’s book Speak, the main character Melinda Sordino portrays a dark persona of a socially withdrawn, depressed, and isolated being who ultimately transforms into a stronger and more independent individual due to overcoming her own fear and the tragic experience of being a rape victim.

Melinda’s last name, Sordino, relates to the book because the word origin means silent or mute. This is Melinda’s characteristic throughout the book until towards the end of the school year. Her quiet and anti-social qualities are due to the events that happened at the party she attended in August, the summer before high school. She went with her best friend Rachel as an attempt to get to know older kids, like the seniors. At this party Melinda drinks her first beer and after a couple she thinks they taste really bad. She steps outside although feeling tipsy, and finds a guy who begins flirting and talking to her who is a senior. She is amazed that a senior is talking to her, barely a freshman, and she starts to dance with him. He pulls her close and starts to touch her and begins kissing her. At first Melinda thinks this is what high school is supposed to feel like and is overwhelmed with strong emotions. But soon, he starts to get too physical...