Expository Essay : Literary - SPEAK

Expository Essay : Literary

SPEAK By: Julian Carvalhal-Smith

Being a teenage girl in high school is hard enough, but going to high school when everybody hates you is even harder. Melinda has found herself in this terrible predicament that has ruined her friendship, her grades, and her self respect.Melinda doesn't believe that she has what it takes to speak up and tell the truth. Despite Melinda's traumatic experience, she shows courage and strength when overcoming her social and physical problems.

Melinda used to have friends and be quite popular. Until the night at the party when she got raped and called the police. No one knew she got raped. She was outside and isolated from everyone else. Therefore, people thought she called the police because she was either drunk or scared. Melinda's life has completely turned around from being popular and having lots of friends to being emo and flunking classes. If only Melinda told the truth about getting raped and everybody believed her. If only she had the courage to stand up for herself and speak. But like a flower for example, it has to grow and grow to stand strong. Melinda is much like a flower. She has to grow the courage to stand up strong and speak. “No one really cares what you have to say.” - Melinda Sordino

As you keep reading, you notice that Melinda slowly starts build up that courage by actually talking to people and by making a friend. The new girl was sitting alone at Melinda's table. Melinda built the courage to talk to her and actually ended up befriending her. Her name is Heather. Heather and Melinda don't exactly have everything in common. Their like two opposites, except they don't attract. Heather likes to be apart of the school and join clubs, whereas Melinda has no school spirit whatsoever. Eventually Heather becomes a model and joins the Martha club and leaves Melinda to broken pieces like before. Melinda gets kicked to the curb... Again. “My life sucks.” - Melinda Sordino

Melinda’s self confidence could not be any lower now. The one person who really helps Melinda’s self confidence is Mr. Freeman. Unlike most of the other people in the story, Mr. Freeman can tell that something’s up and knows that Melinda has something to say. Mr. Freeman’s the only teacher who really cares what’s going on in the students lives. As him being an art teacher, he spots all sorts of emotions. In this case, he spots Melinda’s depression. Mr. Freeman knows that Melinda really has something to say. Just by saying that, Melinda’s self confidence boosts up by knowing people really do care for what you have to say. Melinda ends up getting a lot of support from her parents and guidance counselor to not be afraid to speak up of whatever it was that traumatized her. From all the support she got, she finally ends up speaking the truth. She tells her old friend Rachel/Rachelle first. She tells her that she got raped at the party and that she was scared and didn’t know what to do. Rachel had recently started to go out with Andy Evans, and Melinda did not want to see Rachel get hurt. So, Melinda told Rachel what really happened. At first Rachel was speechless and felt sorry until Melinda said it was Andy Evans who raped her. Then Rachel turned back to hating Melinda and called her disgusting and jealous. Melinda did not know how anyone would believe her if Rachel didn’t. “There is no point in talking to my ex-friends.” –Melinda Sordino

What more could possibly worse if no one believed her? ... Then the unthinkable happened. Someone had trapped Melinda into a dark closet. The lights turned on and it was IT... Andy Evans trapped Melinda in the same room as her. Andy got aggressive with her and was trying to rape her again! Melinda fought for herself and held him off for a bit. But Andy was too strong and got a grip on her. Melinda had thrown chemicals in his eyes from the closet and grabbed a shard of glass from a broken jar and held it to his neck. The glass was far enough in his neck to cut him. Andy begged for mercy, until suddenly the door opens. Standing there was Nicole and the lacrosse team with their sticks held high. One of them runs for help. The truth is out and Melinda could not possibly feel any better. A year with hate and regret has finally all been put behind her and is now the past. “Have a nice life.” - Melinda Sordino

As said, Melinda does have courage and strength to speak has she has proved. No matter how scared you are, you will always have the courage and you will use it no matter how shy or how scared you are. The bigger problem, the more you want to resolve it. If Melinda can go through a year with people hating her, then anyone can... All you need is a little strength, courage, and belief that you have what it takes to overcome your problem(s). These sorts of problems happen all the time. You just have to believe in yourself and SPEAK UP.