Rain Cloud
People talk behind her back, she can hear them, everyone ignores that she's there. The memory of that night will never fade, but she wishes it will. She has a secret only herself and one other person, who she calls “IT” frightened by even the mention of his name. This girl is a teenage outcast by mistake, what happened to her that night wasn’t her fault, and now all of her friends hate her. Her name is Melinda, a girl, an outcast, she lives in a world created by her mind; she has no one but herself. She keeps herself locked up in her shell, she uses it as the only thing protecting her from the harsh words her ex best friends are speaking about her. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, is the book that holds the story of Melinda a teenage outcast, who is shunned by her friends.
People talk behind her back, she can hear them, everyone ignores that she's there. The memory of that night will never fade, but she wishes it will. She has a secret only herself and one other person, who she calls “IT” frightened by even the mention of his name. This girl is a teenage outcast by mistake, what happened to her that night wasn’t her fault, and now all of her friends hate her. Her name is Melinda, a girl, an outcast, she lives in a world created by her mind; she has no one but herself. She keeps herself locked up in her shell, she uses it as the only thing protecting her from the harsh words her ex best friends are speaking about her. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, is the book that holds the story of Melinda a teenage outcast, who is shunned by her friends.
Melinda was once in her own clan, "the plain Janes," her clan separated in the beginning of high school, from what happened that night. But in the beginning of the book it starts off already having her alienated by the entire school. She lives in a world that only she knows of, her mind. Her parents don’t know about what happened that night but they don’t even care to know what happened. Over all home isn't home any more, even an abandon janitors closet feels more like home. Being alienated from has caused her physiologic problems; all she can do is hide.
Throughout the course of this novel she grew stronger and more confident of herself. She began to be able to let herself think about what happened that night; she also began to say IT's name. IT’s name is really Andy Evans, he is the only one besides Malinda who know about that night. He holds it over her like he is her own personal rain cloud, The only thing protecting her is her invisible umbrella, her mind. That night haunts her forever; the night that has her scared out of her mind was the night she was raped at a high school drinking party. She was raped under a tree in the darkness of the night. And as panic fills her from head to toe she made in impulsive decision, to call the cops, but she was too scared to talk to them so she fled the party.
Towards the end of the novel Melinda was as strong as she could be and gathered up every last ounce of her confidence and confronted her ex best friend, Rachel. Rachel didn’t believe Melinda because Rachel was with Andy. But when Andy takes Rachel to the prom and tries to pull the same thing on her, she starts to believe that that really happened to her. When Rachel starts talking to Melinda again one by one her friends start talking to her again.
If the author would have continued to write this book I think that Melinda would have rejoined her old friends and overcame Andy Evens, IT, and finished off high school. She would close her umbrella and the rain cloud will be gone. The Storm is over, but just like any other major disaster there will be memories, but what comes with a disaster is help from you allies. Just in this disaster the allies would be her friends.
