Melinda

Authors Note: This short piece is for my speech and for my goals. It is character development based on the character Melinda from the book we are reading "Speak".

Have you ever felt like the whole world is against you, like you did something wrong even though you know it was the right thing to do? In the novel "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson is about a teenage girl just entering high school. She used to have a numerous amount of friends until the incident happened; she busted a party. Would you have the guts to do that, even if you knew what the outcome would be?

That party had almost the whole school there, but now everyone hates her including most of the teachers except for her art teacher. The clan she belonged to the year before, the Plain Janes, has split and been absorbed by other groups, but Melinda is alone. She lost everyone.

Melinda is a unique, brave, down to earth girl that has her own opinion on everything, but she is also known as an outcast that blames herself for busting most of her friends. She knows that she is different from everyone else, from when she says “I have entered high school with the wrong hair, the wrong clothes, the wrong attitude. And I don’t have anyone to sit with. I am Outcast.”

Melinda reminds me of Bella from Twilight, Bella is preserved quiet and at first an outcast exactly like Melinda. In the first book when Bella enters high school everyone thinks she's weird and quiet just like how everyone hates Melinda on the first day.