Tuesday 5 June 2012

Bostons Compare/Contrast Essay - Speak


The whole concept of opposites attract is fascinating. People spend their whole lives avoiding things that are different and sticking to familiarity, so to imagine being attracted to something or someone completely different from your standards is perplexing, but also somewhat understandable. Readers of the novel 'Speak' could argue this is the case with main character Melinda and her friend Heather. Now, it's not immediately apparent that they are opposites, seeing as how they share similar interests in food, music and movies, but inside, they are completely different people.

For example, Melinda's attitude towards school is very biased. She hates school, she hates social contact, she hates learning and she despises most of the teachers. Melinda understands the importance of school, but doesn't agree with it, and she greatly admires when a fellow student David stands up for himself against a teacher. Heather feels differently. She feels school is a wonderful opportunity to prepare for almost every situation. She loves school, she loves social contact, she loves learning and she generally likes most of the teachers.

Their home lives are probably quite different as well. Melinda doesn't necessarily hate her parents or her life, but she knows that there is something wrong that doesn't fulfil what she wants in her life. Heather's home life isn't talked about as much in depth, but from what we can tell, her mother seems a little over-protective (when Melinda goes to hang out at Heather's house for the first time, Heather's mother immediately greets them with a 'Hello Heather, who's your friend? Do you live in the neighborhood? What are your interests? How long have you lived here?', giving Melinda literally no time to answer or take a breath). Melinda figures this is because she wants her daughter to have 'good' friends; not any that could have a possible bad influence on her. However, while going into greater depth on her character, the reader could find an issue that is quite possible she could have.

As soon as the school year starts, Heather feels a driving need to be part of 'the Marthas', a clique that adores wearing the same style of outfits, helping out at fundraisers at school and creating artsy type things (following after their namesake of Martha Stewart). The author doesn't quite go into why the Marthas are so appealing to Heather, but that's probably because she's a secondary character. Melinda, on the other hand, disagrees with Heathers need to be accepted. Melinda is very independent, spending most of the novel on her own. She appears to be fascinated by Heathers need to belong. However, she doesn't feel the same way, which causes some conflicts.

Near the end of the novel, when Melinda and Heather start talking to each other again after a conflict, Heather “...launches into a sobstory about becoming a 'Marthadrone' explains Melinda. Heather explains that she hated being a part of the Marthas. She hated the artificiality, the dress code, the social code and everything the clique made her follow to be accepted. She sobs to Melinda, saying she greatly admires her strength and independence. She loves the fact that Melinda doesn't feel the need to conform to be happy with herself. Melinda finds Heather to be very insecure and kind of scoffs at her, seeing as how earlier in the year, Melinda looked up to Heather. At this point in the novel, Melinda begins to view everyone as human again, and doesn't judge people so harshly, especially her old friends Ivy and Rachel.

Even though Heather was a secondary character, Melinda and Heather both went through some drastic changes to their personalities. They evolved in such a way that it feels very natural, and reading the novel again can make the reader appreciate appreciate just how well Laurie Halse-Anderson portrays the mind and thoughts of a teenaged girl (regardless of most readers not being one). The kind of dialogue and the snarky attitude that many people consider timeless. Teenaged girls are and always will share at least some of the characteristics that Melinda and Heather share. It also proves that opposites can attract, albeit with some difficulties.

1 comment:

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