Speak
Flora Whittermore, “The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.” Every day Melinda has many opportunity to talk and reach out to people but never takes that opportunity. She is afraid to talk to people after what happened with her and Andy Evens. She feels all the peer pressure telling her she should be normal and talk and have fun and go to parties and do normal teenager things, this only makes things worse for Melinda. Melinda feels like she’s an outsider, on her own, like nobody cares about her.
After what happened to Melinda she feels like she is on her own.”I stand in the center aisle of the auditorium, a wounded zebra in a National Geographic special, looking for someone, anyone to sit next to.” She has no friends to sit next to and is alone. She calls herself a wounded zebra because she is very vulnerable, she’s all on her own and doesn’t have any friends. “I am the only person sitting alone.” After Melinda called the cops on the party nobody wants to be friends with her, they don’t know that she called the cops because she was raped.
Melinda has no friends. “Rachel Burin, my ex-best friend.” Melinda use to be really good friends with Rachel, they did a lot of stuff together. Nobody knows what happened to her at that party. Her new friend Heather even left her. Heather thought that Melinda was too depressing so she left her to go join the Martha’s. After Melinda was raped by Andy Evens she has become very depressed and isn’t really able to talk with people or enjoy life.
Melinda is very depressed after what happened to her. “It’s easier not to say anything.” After she was raped by Andy Evens she doesn’t like talking to people. She finds it hard to talk so she decides its better if she doesn’t. After the story goes on she starts talking to Heather a little bit before Heater stopped being her friend. She even talks to Mr. Freemen, her art teacher, a little bit. “I can see us living in the woods, her wearing an A, me with an S maybe, S for silent, for stupid, for scared. S for silly . S for shame.” She is depressed and doesn’t think she is good at anything. She thinks that she’s stupid and doesn’t fit in with anyone. She knows she I quiet and tries to talk and tell people about her getting raped but she can’t.
Melinda thinks she’s alone and not normal. All the people telling her to talk and be normal make her feel worse. She tries to talk but never can. If she could talk about getting raped she would be normal and able to talk and be “normal”. Melinda is sad and depressed and nobody is really helping her. She tries to talk about getting raped but never can.