Speak Character Analysis

In the book, Speak, Melinda is the main character. She enters high school as a self-proclaimed 'outcast', with no group to sit with or friends to say hello to. Melinda believes that the only way she is going to get through high school is by staying silent and hoping that nobody will notice her. And maybe they would leave her alone, after all nobody really wanted to hear what she wanted to tell them. "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 really wants to hear what you have to say." (Anderson, 9). This quote shows how Melinda didn't expect much of herself, and that she was another person just trying to get by in life. She never had confidence in herself, and always questioned her actions, thoughts, and feelings. She wasn't sure what she felt, and wasn't sure if it was 'right' or not.

As the story continues, we see Melinda's character change. The plot advances, leading Melinda to an art class, with Mr. Freeman as a teacher. Mr. Freeman assigns Melinda a project, where she gets a subject and has to express different emotions through the subject using different mediums of art. Melinda started to break free of her old self, but was stopped, not by others, but by herself. She thought the project was going to be so fun, but soon had a difficult time expressing emotion. "Me: 'All right, but you said we had to put emotion into our art. I don't know what that means. I don't know what I' supposed to feel.' My fingers fly up and cover my mouth. What am I doing?" (Anderson, 122). This quote shows how Melinda was starting to share her feelings, but she stopped, thinking that she shouldn't be doing that. She still had an issue with her feelings, and didn't want to accept them. She did this by pushing them away into the back of her head, where she couldn't share or express them.


Melinda and Mr. Freeman from the
movie version of Speak.

Towards the end of Speak, Melinda begins to discover her feelings through her art. She comes to a realization that art helped her to relax and relieve stress. By drawing, painting, and sculpting, Melinda was able to free herself from herself, resolving her internal conflict (man vs. self). "I'm waiting for the clock to and the daily torture-by-algebra session when WHAMMO!-a thought slams into my head: I don't want to hang in my little hidy-hole anymore. I look behind me, half expecting to see a sniggering back-row guy  who beaned me with an eraser. Nope-the back row is struggling to stay awake." (Anderson, 192). Melinda realized that she enjoyed talking and expressing herself to others, and decided that she didn't want to hide away from the world anymore. But, she still hadn't fully expressed herself to others.

The last major character change occurs at the very end of the book, where Melinda actually reaches out to Mr. Freeman, who helped her express herself to begin with. She decided to sit down with him and talk about it. "The tears dissolve the last block of ice in my throat. I feel the frozen stillness melt down through the inside of me, dripping shards of ice that vanish in a puddle of sunlight on the stained floor. Words float up." Though she seemed to struggle with talking to Mr. Freeman, she still did it, and ultimately felt better. This interaction with Mr. Freeman advances the plot to the resolution.

These major changes in character and emotion proved that Melinda is a dynamic character, because she changed her attitude about her emotions and sharing them.