Luke Brix
2/23/17
Literature for the adolecent
Individual
Text Feature: Speak
I
plan on examining then novel Speak by
Laurie Halse Anderson. The book was written in 1999 and went on to become a
finalist for the National Book Award. The story chronicles how the main
character Melinda, a high-school age girl, has a traumatic event occur to her
before the beginning of the book. She has become notorious at her school for
calling the police at a party over summer, and as such she is treated like an
outcast at her school, even among the people who used to be her friends. Melinda
is reluctant to tell people the whole story of why she called the cops and
experiences a self-imposed stated of silence on the matter, even though she
wants to tell people the truth about what happened to her. Over the course of
the novel she later reveals that she called the cops because he was raped
during the party. The emotional arc of the story concludes with her finally
being able to tell her peers and teachers the truth about what happened.
The
book has received several awards and was a bestseller when in was released,
making it both a critical and commercial success. Academia has taken notice of
the book too, there have been essays, articles, and even a whole book devoted
to analyzing the text of the novel. Many of the academic works involve looking
at trauma from rape, high school violence and victimization, and identity. I plan
to examine how institutional discourses work in the text, specifically how
Melinda’s high school is portrayed. In the novel the school is the source of
her social ostracism, as well as a place where adults are being unfair to her despite
apparently being aware that she is not being treated the same anymore. But at
the same time, the novel’s device of the art class, a thing that is obviously
held within the institution of the school, is one of the ways that she is able
to learn how to express herself and by extension be able to tell the truth
about what happened to her at the party.
In
my examination of the text the school for the most part is portrayed as this
malicious, crushing institution either led by people who are actively targeting
Melinda, or who are to incompetent to successfully get her in trouble as in the
case of the principal. The school itself is symbolically suppressing stories
about sexuality of any kind as they changed the name of their sports team from
the “Trojans” to the “Blue Devils” so as to not have the same name as the
condom brand.
Another
thing I’d be able to examine is the novel’s treatment of the art class. Unlike the
resto of the school, the art class is the one part of school that Melinda enjoys.
She compares it to “Heaven after [the] Hell” of being in the lunch room where the
other students are ignoring, insulting, and physically assaulting her. The
teacher is portrayed as a wise man who is trying to help his class, unlike the
other teachers in the novel. He assigns the class a project in which each
student is randomly given an object to depict in a way that conveys a personal
idea ort emotion to them. Melinda, unlike the most of the class, is more than
willing to take part in the assignment, and this event is the first event in
the novel the reader sees her be happy about something. Melinda picks a tree
from the raffle and is assigned “Tree”, one of the main objects on the cover of
the book. One thing I found particularly interesting about this scene is how
she says that drawing a tree would be too easy for her, and yet when she starts
working on the project, the teacher is unable to recognize that she is drawing
a tree. It’s as if the trauma combined with the willful silence on the issue
has damaged her ability to convey ideas at all. In this specific instance the
institution of the high school becomes a positive and helpful force in the
protagonist’s life.
In
the case of either topic being focused on, the main focus is on how the adolescent
protagonist deals and interacts with the adult world of school systems and
authority. It examines not only how adult are willing to help in cases such as
sexual violence but also brings up the darker truth that there may also be suppression
of her story so as not to deal with the “dirty” subject of sexuality. The novel
itself is repeatedly challenged and the American Library Association has placed
it on a list of “The Top 100 Most Challenged Books from 2000 to 2009.” It is
ranked number 60. The issue of rape and its traumatic effects is often seen as
a topic far beyond the maturity level of the typical YA audience. This does not
mean that the topic is not worth addressing, especially when there is a problem
of minors experiencing sexual assault and violence. My edition of the book ends
with a section of rape and sexual assault resources including phone numbers for
the National Sexual Assault Hotline, and several websites that offer help to
victims of sexual crimes. One thing of note is that this particular section of
the book also starts with a list of statistics about victims of sexual assault.
“Nearly half of rape and sexual assault victims are girls under the age of 18”
and other statistics like that. These facts, and by extension the novel itself
is presented with the intention of trying to lower the amount of unreported
rape and sexual assault cases of minors and to encourage those who have been
victimized to report the event not only for the help of the justice system, but
to also gain some sort of personal closure by being able to tell the truth
about the event. Overall this book itself
is an artistic message with a didactic purpose of alleviating a real-world
problem.
Luke,
ReplyDeleteI liked that you emphasized the relevance of this book, following up with already-there sources and statistics. I am not sure of what you plan to actually discuss: the malicious institute that continuously strives to suppress "stories about sexuality of any kind," the positive aspect of the art class, or both. Perhaps, you mean to compare the two different views of the school system, although the negative one clearly outweighs the positive one, proving that institutions are not all malicious like many seem to think.
I mostly enjoyed the fact that you mentioned the "positive" look at the institution, though I saw this as still a limiting factor to Melinda. In other words, maybe you'd like to expand on your proposal to direct the conversation to examine the limited outlets of coping resources available to students like Melinda. In her case, of all the options she had (the principle, other adults, the art class), it happened that the art class was the only real outlet her had. I called this a limiting factor, because statistically speaking, the arts, in general, are widely paid less attention to, are less favored, and largely underfunded. I cannot speak for the book, as I haven't read it before, but it is common for people to turn away from taking any courses that have to do with the arts, because of their unwarranted reputation. So the fact that the art class was her only option, that the resource was limited, thus limiting her to a very small outlet.
To aid you in research on the topic of limited resources, you could use a recent article I read about UF, in the Alligator. The link: http://www.alligator.org/news/campus/article_8f9b6890-fa49-11e6-ba01-f32c2f67bb9a.html
OR check out Andrew N. McKnight's article "Institutions of Schooling, Systemic Prescriptions, and Emotional Discord: Toward Pedagogies of Relational Meaning," for information on the relationship between teachers, students, and the institution, as well as the effect ethics has on this relationship. I hope these can help to further illuminate your position.
Hi Luke,
ReplyDeleteThis is a good, specific angle to focus your argument on this text. You may want to check out Don Latham's Melinda's Closet: Trauma and the Queer Subtext of Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak," because it might work with the sexual repression issue you are interested in. On most relevance to you is probably Jessi Snider's "Be The Tree: Classical Literature, Art Therapy, and Transcending Trauma in Speak." You might also look at "All the World a School: The School as Metaphor for Oppression in Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four." Even though it is not about your text, it does focus on one of your central ideas, and at the least it could have a good works cited for you to mine for more sources on the topic of the school as a site of oppression and silencing.
Luke,
ReplyDeleteAlthough I haven't heard of your book before, I find it very interesting. The main character in the book I chose, "Breathing Underwater," is very different from yours, but experiences many of the same social situations. His father is abusive and he hides this from his friends. When he lashes out and abuses his girlfriend, the entire school rejects him. No one can understand why he acted the way he did, similar to how no one in Melinda's school is close enough to her to know why she would call the cops on a party. While Melinda's escape is art, Nick's is poetry, which is another similarity. I thought maybe you could use a source about how art ties in to recovery. Although I am not sure that Melinda was able to continue expressing herself through art after her trauma? Anyways, here is a source that I hope you can use: https://ncfy.acf.hhs.gov/features/thinking-creatively-family-and-youth-work/art-therapy
Many different articles came up when I searched art as healing for trauma victims!
Also, maybe you could use some research on how isolation and rejection affects teenagers:
http://www.ipedr.com/vol31/048-ICSSH%202012-S10087.pdf
Hey Luke,
ReplyDeleteBoth of our books look at trauma from rape, high school violence and victimization, and identity. The topics in our books are familiar to adolescents in various socioeconomic backgrounds. I haven't read Speak,but I would think Melinda's willingness to open up about the topic could result in helping her peers in the future. I love that it was Art that opened up an avenue for expression. I found this really great article on how art therapy helps high school students express themselves. There is a transcript of an interview with a student and how art therapy has helped ease some of tension she faces daily.
Best of luck!!
http://www.arttherapyblog.com/mental-health/art-therapy-helps-high-school-students-express/#.WMYls5Dyvrc