She finally Spoke

She Finally Spoke

By Kennedi Bates

Author’s Note: This is a cause and affect formal non-fiction essay of the book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson. The purpose of this essay is to explain that I understand how to analyze the climax, causes and the effects of a story. I support my thoughts with details from the story and quotes. This will help me reach my goal and I will hopefully improve.

Imagine you are at a crazy, summer high school party. You’re just about to start high school and you need someone to look after you. You see a senior that’s pretty darn cute and he takes you in the woods and before you know it, he’s covering your mouth and doing stuff to you! You try to scream and tell him to get off of you but he won’t. When he’s finally done, you call the cops. Bad decision. Now, every teenager at that party hates you. This is exactly what happened to Melinda in Speak, by Laurie Anderson. Melinda got attacked by senior, Andy Evans, at a party and was scared so she called the cops. That got everyone in trouble at the party and everyone that was there, now despises her more than anything. Even though they don’t know what truly happened.  When school finally starts Melinda is mute and won’t tell anybody what really happened to her on that horrible night. In the novel, Speak even though Melinda speaking up is the climax, the cause, effects and what led up to it is very important.

First off, the climax of the story is when she finally told one other person what happened. The one person she told was her former best friend, Rachel who was at the time dating Andy. Rachel couldn’t believe Melinda would make up that Andy did that just because she was jealous, but Rachel was wrong, it really did happen. Melinda finds out that Rachel confronted Andy about it, but Andy got very angry and tried to hurt Melinda again.

Even though climax of the story is very important, what led up to it and the causes of it need to be known about. There were many causes of the climax. One of the main causes were Melinda was just tired of being ignored and being despised for something that nobody knew the true story of what happened. Another cause was that it was basically eating away at her. Melinda needed to get it off her chest before she did something very drastic to herself or somebody. Melinda couldn’t stand it any longer and finally told! “I should probably tell someone. Just... *anyone*. Get it over with. Blurt it out.” This quote shows how it was killing her inside and how she needed to tell somebody, anybody! Lastly, another cause was that she was losing friends. She lost friends because Melinda was always depressed and never talked. Would you want to talk or be friends with someone like that? I didn’t think so. “Heather: You don't like anything. You're the most depressed person I've ever met. And excuse me for saying this but I think you need professional help. Melinda: So you're blowing me off because I'm a little depressed? Heather: Once you get through this "life sucks" phase, I'm sure lots of people will wanna be your friend. But for right now, I don't think we should have lunch together.” This quote shows how Melinda lost her true, only friend she had in 9^th grade. So, she decided to tell. Maybe her old friends would forgive her and everything could be just the way it was before that party!

Although the causes of the climax are a huge portion of why you need to know about the causes, effects and what led up to the climax, the effects are very substantial!  One tremendous effect of the climax is how all of a sudden no one liked Andy anymore! When Andy found out that Melinda told Rachel about how Andy attacked her, Andy got very, very frustrated. He found Melinda hiding in a closet and started attacking her again! Andy started beating her as much as he could! Another effect of the climax was Melinda gaining friends and becoming quite popular! Melinda finally found friends and was slowly improving her life style over all. Everything was back to normal!

In addition to the causes, effects and the climax, how would it be different if the climax never happened? What if Melinda didn’t tell anyone what had happened? A possibility could be that she would still be depressed for some or rest of her freshman year or worse, her high school life! Another possibility is Melinda doing something very drastic. Melinda could run away from her family, seeing how they don’t care about her at all or possibly start cutting herself more severely. This could ruin her whole life just because a stupid, ignorant senior wanted to have some fun with a brand, new freshman.

In conclusion, what led up, causes and effects of the climax are very valuable information to know. There are many causes and effects of the climax that need to be known. There are also many different possibilities if Melinda never told about what happened. She could run away or possibly hurt herself even more or hurt somebody else. This could cause many problems for Melinda that could destroy her life! What would do if you were in Melinda’s situation? How would you feel?