Speak

Speak by Laura Hulse Anderson

One of the things that really captivated my attention in this book were the connections that were made to other works of literature, other forms of media, and things like art that I knew about and could connect to Melinda. The two references that struck me the most were The Scarlet Letter and Picasso (100 & 118). I didn't read The Scarlet Letter until last year. I felt silly not ever having read it (especially as an English major) and when I finally got around to it I loved it. I think that connections Melinda makes with Hester really show the reader how she's feeling. In the book Hester is silent as well, her voice taken away from her when she is found to be pregnant and given the "A" to wear. Melinda feels like she may as well be wearing a letter as well. She says that she would be wearing an "S"..."for silent, for stupid, for scared. S for silly. For shame." This really struck me. Hester's A stands for adultery. It is a negative symbol. It sets her apart from everyone else, and yet it does nothing to punish the other person involved. Not only that, but Hester protects the preacher. She has the chance to say who the child's father is but she chooses to stay silent, just as Melinda has. She protects the preacher because he was a good man and because the community respects him. While Melinda knows that Andy is not a good man, he is one of the "popular kids" so by pointing fingers at him and telling her secret she is afraid she would still become even more of an outcast and that no one would believe her. When we look at the words Melinda associates with the S she is putting on herself it is all about blaming herself. It's not only what she's done but it's how she's felt: scared, silly, shame. I think that many of these same words could have belonged to Hester as well.

Reading The Scarlet Letter and then reading these pages of Speak really made me think about this idea of carrying around guilt. I think that, in a way, we all have our own letters that we wear. We all hide our own secrets, no matter how big or how small. And if you stop and think about it, why do we keep secrets? Sometimes it's to protect ourselves, and sometimes it's to protect others, but what are we protecting them from? Isn't keeping secrets really all about other people? We already know the secret, it's not about what we think and feel about it, but how we think other people will perceive it. If we trust a friend we may share our secret with them, it's because we're no longer afraid (or as afraid) of how they will react, but we still don't want our enemies to have ammunition against us, and we still don't want ridiculed by society, so we keep them held within us for as long as possible. Reading this story I kept seeing moments when Melinda could have told somebody. She could have told Heather, or Ivy, or Mr. Freeman, or any number of people...but she didn't, she held it all in. As I read there was a voice in the back of my head that kept screaming "JUST TELL SOMEBODY ALREADY!" But I knew that she wouldn't...not yet...not until something big happened, something that forced her to tell. Because in truth that's how I am, and that's how most people are. If it were anyone else's secret they probably would have reacted the same way. That's a sad thing to say, especially when you know, as I do, people who have had this happen to them and who have been afraid to tell anybody. I know a girl who is not a senior in college, who was raped at a party when she was in high school. Her best friend (at the time) was there and knew what was happening but didn't help. Her parents didn't ever know, and when she was diagnosed with an STD she didn't tell her parents about it either, she let them assume and point fingers at her. She let them think that it was her fault, that she had slept with this guy or that...regardless of the fact that she has never willingly slept with a guy. The secret is kept out of fear. The secret is kept because she doesn't want to point fingers at someone whom her parents know, who actually lives just down the street from where her parents now live. She doesn't know how they will react, if they will still simply say it's her fault for being at a party she never should have been at, so she just keeps quiet.

I think that the major part of this comes from a lack of understanding and education. It was mentioned in one of the forum posts that there is little sex education presented in general, but even less (if any at all) about self-defense and prevention of assault and rape. Not only that but society has put a stigma on it that makes people think they can't come forward when it does happen. Girls in movies who get assault are represented in one of two ways: either they're weak and crying, or they're wearing short skirts and tons of make-up. Neither of these in any way should say to people that "they were asking of it" or "they deserved it" as is sometime heard, but I think people are also afraid that because this is the portrayal and because these things are said they don't want to be associated with them. (I found it interesting and somewhat empowering to finally read a book where this wasn't the case. Steig Larson's character in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is thrown into this situation but takes a very different approach. While it seems almost uncharacteristic according to how society portrays women, it should be what we are teaching our girls about how to deal with these situations. It may not have been a solution available to everyone, but the idea of a more aggressive reaction is the lesson taken from this.) We need to find a way to teach everyone (because I realize that it's not just girls that deal with this) not only how to talk about this and who to talk to if the situation should occur, but how to prevent the situation from happening. I think that education and support are the key to helping solve this problem.