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.
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