Speak By: Laurie Halse Anderson

Significance: The main character, Melinda goes to a crazy party at the end of summer and calls the police which soon makes everyone hate her, so the book is all kind of about her life after that. I think this is important because the author makes you feel crazy, like that could happen to you, that your entire life could totally change because of one night, the author is sooo good at making you feel the pain Melinda is constantly going through.


Perspective: I think maybe something like that happened to the author when she was a good because she seems to be so good at making you feel like Melinda is a real person and that's actually happening. Or, she probably went to a lot of teenage girls in different areas and found out how they would say things, how to write in a realistic perpective of them, how they actually feel, so they could put some of that on paper to create her character.


Evidence: I think the argument that's being made is Melinda has definitely changed a lot since freshman year, and she needs something to help her change and go back to a bit of the person she was before. The evidence is the way she talks, expresses herself (rarely) the way she doesn't care, hardly speaks, and how her only friend (a new student who wasn't at the party) ditched her to hang out with some preppy club, and left her and her depressing, muddy thoughts and attitude to sit alone at lunch; she has no friends, and basically no life.


Connection: I'm not sure if this connects to me in particular, but it definitely connects to the real world. I bet a lot of teens go to insane parties just like that all the time, and a lot of them have probably been in her position, confused, reckless and left with an 'I don't care' attitude. She actually sounds like she'd be a real teen (a really emo one.) I think things like that have happened in the past, and the author probably went to high school with someone like Melinda. It could affect the future, because maybe a teen could read this and not go partying to much, or a despressed teen could read this and try to change.


Supposition: My life might be a little different if I never read this story. I think this story kind of reached out to me because I actually kind of understood the main characters language, and her story was really, really sad and deep. It seemed so true, too; if that ever happened to me, I don't know what I'd do. If I changed part of the problem in this book, let's say, her problem wasn't that everyone hated her, it's that everyone loved her too much and she needed space, maybe? Well If i did that, the book would totally change, probably even have a different title, because the whole book and all her actions and her personality are basically based on everyone hating her/her having no friends. I probably wouldn't like it as much.