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Post by powersch on Jun 3, 2014 10:43:22 GMT
For the novel you chose, answer the following prompt in at least two well developed paragraphs:
Identify the protagonist’s American Dream. Does the protagonist achieve that dream or not? At what cost? Does the dream change throughout the novel? Cite specific examples from the text to support your answers.
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Post by Hilman Chan on Jul 5, 2014 17:56:24 GMT
The novel, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, is written from the perspective of a girl named Melinda. Melinda, being the protagonist, begins the story by describing the first day of high school. As a ninth grader being brought into a new territory, stress has already built on her. However, the traumatic, scarring experience of her sexual assault at a party has already produced a load of negativity within her. With what she has been through, she settles on a vision that she hopes to come true: the “American Dream.” Melinda’s American Dream is split into three parts: to live the flawless lifestyle that has no trouble in school, to have a supportive family with no drama, and to belong in a group of friends who treat her with respect and stick by her.
To begin with, Melinda identifies herself by stating, “I am Outcast.” She sees the education system as a division amongst the students as everyone splits up in the auditorium. She continues her observation as she mentions that “We fall into clans: Jocks, Country Clubbers, Idiot Savants, Cheerleaders… I am clanless. I have entered high school with the wrong hair, the wrong clothes, the wrong attitude. And I don’t have anyone to sit with.” Melinda longs for the day where school does not make her uncomfortable and isolated from the typical labels everyone is given. She struggles to get by with good grades in school, except in art class, where she thinks art is a “dream [that] follows nightmare.” At the end of every marking period, Melinda gives a report card of her grades. Nearly all of her grades are filled with D’s or F’s, except for the A in art class.
Moving on, Melinda hopes for her family to stop having fights and to frequently spend time with each other. Melinda feels unloved and underestimated when her parents don’t bother to ask why she feels the way she does. After being raped by a boy named Andy at the party she went to, she loses her voice and motivation, and miscommunication is recurrent. Melinda begins to notice that even her mother hates the silence after Melinda attempts to self-harm. Melinda’s mother brings up a short conversation after seeing Melinda’s wrist. “She says suicide is for cowards. This is an uglynasty Momside.” Melinda thinks “She has figured that I don’t say too much. It bugs her.” Besides lack of understanding, Melinda’s father also fails at making dinner (which leads to constantly buying already-prepared food) and bugs her about her grades. The school’s guidance counselor believes Melinda’s parents have marriage issues.
Lastly, Melinda feels unwelcomed around others as she challenges herself to make friends. The first friend she makes in high school, named Heather, eventually abandons the friendship due to the fact that Heather wants to fit in with the rest of the crowd. Melinda tries to talk to her older friends but is only responded back with hatred and annoyance. It was not until through the development of art class that she befriends a girl she knew in the past named Ivy.
As character develops, Melinda’s American Dream is never achieved. She begins to realize that simply the American Dream could never be reached. Life isn’t perfect, and never will be. It cost Melinda her entire ninth grade year of torture, embarrassment, and anxiety to accept that even though life is tough, she should not stop trying. Her stabs at art speak the damage at what she has encountered and only Mr. Freeman (her art teacher) understood the dark aura. In the end, justice is prevailed when Andy the sexual offender is punished, the entire student body is aware of Andy, Melinda has earned the trust of Ivy, and receives an A+ in her final art project that she has restarted several times. Through the ruins of her life, Melinda found her happy moments, even if she did not achieve the perfect lifestyle she wanted in the beginning.
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Post by Kassi Potter on Jul 23, 2014 20:51:12 GMT
In Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson the protagonist is the narrator, Melinda. Melinda's American dream is to have a perfect life. This includes everything from being popular to having a loving family. Throughout the novel, Melinda feels completely alone because of an incident that had happened during the summer that left her hated by most. Through out novel she meets two girls, Heather and Ivy. She said Heather was "Another wounded zebra" on the first day like herself. She stays friends with her until Heather dumps her for another clique which is when Melinda realized that Heather was her one true friend.
Ivy is a girl in her art class which is her favorite class. She likes the teacher, Mr. Freeman who also is the only person that really understands Melinda. In art, the trees that Melinda draws are symbolic of her maturity. In the beginning she thought her trees had to look perfect, much like her American dream, but by the end of the story, Melinda realized that her tree looked better when "the bark is rough" and "one of the lower branches is sick". Melinda family life is far from perfect. Her parents are either arguing or not home, both of which Melinda tries to ignore. At the end of the novel she realizes she can't make her family perfect but she can change it which is why she asked to redecorate her room and starts making the front yard look better. Melinda never achieves her American dream but instead comes to a realization that a perfect life is unrealistic and to make the best of the life you have.
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Post by Luke Leskanic on Jul 26, 2014 19:11:26 GMT
In the book “We Were Here” the protagonists name is Miguel. Miguel is a young boy who lives in Stocktown. He made a mistake that changed his whole life. He accidentally killed his own brother. He first goes to juvenile detention then goes to a group home. He escapes the group home and goes on the run. The American dream for Miguel is to forget about his brother’s death and throughout the book he tries to go through life without thinking about what happened and he tries to hide what happened not only from everyone else but from him too. On the run he goes across the west coast and lives on the run with his friends Rondell and Mong who he escaped with from the group home. The whole time on the run Miguel tries to forget and hide his past, but the whole time he is on the run its keeps on bugging him and he can’t forget it. Finally towards the end of the book instead of hiding what happened from everyone he tells everyone and he accepts that it was an accident and that he cannot forget about what happened. At the end of the book Miguel goes back to the group home to serve the rest of his time and his new American dream is to have a free life so that he can go back to live with his mom still knowing what happened in his past but this time he didn't keep trying to forget about the past and at the end he doesn't have the burden on him of killing his brother because he isn’t trying to hide it.
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Post by Samantha Florio on Jul 28, 2014 2:11:00 GMT
The book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is about a teenage girl in high school named Melinda. The protagonist which is Melinda, her American dream is to be able to speak up, and have what you would say "the normal" life. Which is having friends, and a family that talks, and understands each other. Her life in the beginning and throughout most of the book, her and her family struggle to communicate, and Melinda has difficulty in school, academically and socially. The book says "we communicate with notes on the kitchen counter" showing her family is not like the American dream family. I believe Melinda wants her mom, and dad to care about her, but she can't speak up enough to tell them that, or show them. So she struggles with that. Most of the book is a inner conflict with herself. Melinda discovers that she has to end up speaking for herself, to have a different outcome. She gets the courage to talk to her old friend Rachel, and finds it in her to tell her about the monster her old friend is now dating. She ends up telling Rachel what her boyfriend did to her last summer. At first Rachel doesn't want to believe it, but she ends up figuring out Melinda was telling the truth. After that Melinda makes little changes in her life, by redecorating the lawn. By doing that her dad also helps her with her lawn. So her action had effect on her dad, which I think helps her better see that its all about finding inner happiness with herself. The book says "It isn't perfect and that makes it just right." Melinda's talking about her art project, and that's one of the last few pages of the book. I think the author ended the book this way for the reader knows that Melinda finally realizes that just because everything isn't picture perfect doesn't mean it's not perfect in its own way.
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Post by K.C. Bomonti on Jul 28, 2014 2:51:45 GMT
In the book "Article 5" by Kristen Simmons, the story is written from the experiences of the protagonist, Ember Miller. Ember Miller is a 17 year old girl, she lives in a small town with her mother. The time period in which the book is set, is a future America where war has ravaged almost half of the continent and the government has become extremely rigid and religiously oriented (specifically Christianity). The title of the book "Article 5" pertains to a set of rules called the "Moral Statues" the 5th moral statue states that "Couples that are not married cannot have a child", which is just the situation the protagonist is in, because Ember's mother had her out of wedlock. The punishment for the violation or non-compliance of any of the statues is normally a fine or a court appearance where a more harsh punishment is chosen, Ember's mother received neither of these but was sent straight to a prison where she was put to death.
Ember's "American dream" is to have a government that is fair and free. Through out the story it is shown how the government is unforgiving and oppressive of citizens rights, and in the protagonist's case she loses her mother because of the governments unforgiving ways. Ember does not achieve her American dream in the story fully, the story ends when she is living with a group of rebels plotting to over throw the government giving Ember a sense of hope for her future. However, to reach this point she is helped by various people including her life long friend, Chase Jennings, whom risks his life to save her many times as well as her reform school room mate Rebecca and Rebecca's friend Sean who get caught and punished by the FBR (Federal Bureau of Reform), others lost their lives along the way too. Her dream of once again having a government that is fair and free does not change at all through out the novel.
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Post by Michaela Grimm on Jul 29, 2014 0:17:25 GMT
In the book "SPEAK" by Laurie Halse Anderson, there is a teenage girl named Melinda. Melinda is the protagonist and her American Dream is that she wants to have the courage and motivation to speak up and have a "Normal Life". In the beginning of the book and throughout most of the book Melinda has difficulty communicating with her parents and has trouble in school academically and socially. In the book it says that Melinda and her family communicate with notes at the kitchen table. From reading this book I believe that all Melinda wanted was to have the courage to speak to her parents and wants her parents to care about her.
Towards the end of this book Melinda gets the courage to talk to her old friend Rachel and finds the courage in her to tell Rachel what her boyfriend did to her last summer. Rachel is now dating Melinda's old boyfriend and when Melinda told her about what he did Rachel did not believe her at first but then found out that she was telling the truth. At the end of the book Melinda makes some changes in her life by redecorating the lawn and talking about her art project.
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Post by amaiyam on Jul 29, 2014 0:49:41 GMT
In the book "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson, the protagonist/narrator is a high school student named Melinda. Her American dream and ultimate goal throughout the book is to have as perfect of a life as possible, meaning having a prefect family, having a group of friends to lean on, and ultimately have a good high school experience. Due to a traumatic experience Melinda had during that summer, achieving these goals and her "american dream" is difficult. "I am outcast." This quote Melinda says in the book shows not only how people view her, but ultimately how she views herself .On top of that Melinda's family is far from perfect which has an effect on her as well.
Melinda's biggest issue throughout the book is not only the people, but herself. In the book, Melinda is challenged to do an art project on a tree. The significance of this tree has a big impact on the story. It symbolizes Melinda herself. It reflects her and her life, which is anything but perfect and she soon realizes it as the story progresses.
"It isn't perfect and that makes it just right." In this quote Melinda is referring to the tree and how it represents and displays her life through her artwork. As the story progresses, little by little Melinda realizes that no life can be perfect. There are always going to be flaws and imperfections. She learns how to deal with the life she has and appreciate it just the way it is.
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Post by alyssajones on Jul 30, 2014 3:31:33 GMT
The book “Article 5” by Kristen Simmons was written from the young protagonist Ember Miller’s point of view. Ember is a 17 year old girl who lives with her single mother, whom she loves dearly. The book was set in America in the future and was taken over by the government. Ember calls the government the “MM.” The “MM” have a list of laws that they call Articles. Ember and her mother didn’t follow these laws. They never really thought the “MM” would catch them. Until one night the “MM” showed up at their house and took Ember and her mother away. Since Ember was under the age of 18, she was sent to a reformatory. The reformatory was to make her a “model citizen.” Ember’s mother suffered a different fate, she was sent to a prison to await a trial. Ember was having difficulty adjusting to her new surroundings. Due to her circumstances, Ember lashed out at the reform school. She caused great trouble and the head mistress Ms. Brock was fed up with her behavior. She was sent to “the shack.” However, Ember had a secret, she was carrying love in her heart for Chase Jennings, one of the “MM” fighters. As she was to be delivered to the “the Shack” Chase Jennings found her. Chase saved Ember’s life and they then planned a trip to find a safe house in South Carolina. Ember was hesitant to go. Chase then lied to Ember in regards to the safety of her mother. When out of harm’s way it was then that Chase told Ember the truth about her mother. She had been killed. Furthermore, he confessed that the trials were a lie and violators were shot. Once she heard this news of her mother’s death and the horrible deaths others suffered from the hands of the “MM” Ember ran away from Chase. How could she love someone who support such hatred and violence? The “MM’ caught up to Ember and detained her. Chase her hero, her love saved her again from the evil government. After their escape, Chase and Ember met and stayed with the Resistance to fight against the “MM.”
Ember Miller’s “American Dream” was to find a safe place to live with her mother and her true love Ember wanted to live a free life without the “MM.” She dreamed of happiness, freedom, and, going home. Ember longed to have her mother and her friends back but knew that would never happen. In the end, Ember Miller never achieved her American dream but is working towards a new dream, fighting the people who took her dream away. She now lives with the one person in the world she loves, Chase Jennings.
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Post by Sydney Raines on Aug 1, 2014 14:49:03 GMT
In the book "We Were Here", the protagonist is a boy named Miguel Castaneda who was born in Stockton. Miguel is sent to live in a group home with other juvie kids because he accidentally stabbed his brother. Miguel meets a friend named Rondell Law and he faces an enemy named Mong, who turns out to be a good guy and helps him achieve his American Dream: To forget about his brother. Throughout the book, Miguel was on the run to Mexico with Rondell and Mong to try and create a new life. When he approached the border of Mexico, he realized that he should go back and serve his time so he can be back with his mother. Miguel's various adventures help his mind rid of his brother as he focuses on going back to the group home. Rondell decided to come back to the group home as well and helps Miguel realize that he has a brother.
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Post by Nick Ducey on Aug 3, 2014 15:08:17 GMT
In the book "speak" the protagonist is a young 9th grader named Melinda. Her american dream is to have as close to perfect life as she can. During the book we find out that she had called the cops on a huge high school party because she was raped. she never told anyone about this so they all think that she was being rude and trying to ruin the fun. there fore when here first day of high school comes, she doesn't have any friends. Throughout the book she works on herself and finds the ability to speak out. so when the attacker returned, he didn't stand a chance.
"it isn't perfect that's what makes it just right" is a quote that Melinda says while doing an art project about a tree, this tree is a symbol of her life and even though her life cant be perfect she can make do with what she has.
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Post by noorkantar on Aug 4, 2014 1:22:40 GMT
In the book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, the story follows a teenager girl by the name of Melinda, she being the protagonist. Her “American Dream” is to be able to speak up for herself, to tell everyone the real reason why she called the cops at her first high school party. Throughout the story she struggles with finding herself, mastering her art assignment, and not to mention dealing with unreasonable teachers.
“I am Outcast.” This is the way Melinda views herself with many ex-friends. All of her old friends find themselves new “clans” separated into “Jocks, Country Clubbers, Idiot Savants, Cheerleaders, Human Waste, Eurotrash, Future Fascists of America, Big Hair Chix, the Marthas, Suffering Artists, Thespians, Goths, Shredders” and of course Melinda being clan-less. She meets a new girl Heather from out of town who uses Melinda to her advantage to make her way to popularity. Pleading Melinda to help her with assignments given to her from “the Marthas” she would agree with no question, being too afraid to speak up for herself.
She sees IT around school many times. "IT" referring to her rapist Andy Evans. Whenever Andy saw her, he would alienate and irritate her with little acts. For example, " When Mr. Neck isn't looking, Andy blows in my ear." Also when he spotted her in the school parking lot, he jokingly offered her a bite of his doughnut. She runs away fast, wondering why she didn't run like this when he was going to rape her. After her confrontation with IT, she decided on skipping school. She finds out one day that her ex-bestfriend Rachel/Rachelle is dating Andy. She does not know at first how to approach this situation so she writes Rachel an anonymous note telling her that Andy is trouble. Then one day she finds herself in the library with Rachel and they begin to write notes to each other. It is then when Melinda lets out the big secret on why she called the cops at the party, because Andy raped her. She finally spoke up for herself and told someone she was sexually assaulted. When Rachel read this she got up out of her chair yelling at Melinda, ""I can't believe you. You're jealous. You're a twisted little freak and you're jealous that I'm popular and I'm going to the prom and so you lie to me like this. And you sent me that note, didn't you? You are so sick," and then walked away.
Monday morning came, the day after the prom. Melinda heard all the rumors and soon learns that Rachel ditched Andy in the middle of prom. When the last days of school soon approach, Melinda makes her way to the closet, the only safe place she ran to during school. She quickly finds herself trapped with Andy in the closet. He begins to yell at her and put her down. He starts to pin her to the wall and attempts to assault her. But then Melinda lets a sound explode from her, "NOOOOO!" Following that sound she pushes him off of her, and finds something, anything to protect her. She grabs a piece of glass and puts it to Andy's neck and tells him "I said no."
Melinda instantly became popular after this incident. Everyone in school knew what had happened. When she turns in her Art assignment she receives and A+ and Mr.Freeman knows that she has been through a lot. "Let me tell you about it," she reply's to him. Melinda does in fact achieve her "American Dream." By the end of the story she spoke up and told someone she was raped, after a whole year of high school not being able to say a full sentence. She also had that encounter with her rapist and told him that she said no in the first place. Because she spoke up, she got the attention of many people, popularity, and she also got her best friend Rachel back.
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Post by Erin Dean on Aug 4, 2014 18:26:56 GMT
In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda is the protagonist. Melinda is a 9th grader at MerryWeather High. After an end-of-summer party she called the cops due to her being sexually assaulted, but no one knows that. Now everyone at school hates her and she becomes the definition of and outcast. Even Melinda’s best friend Rachel, who she could tell her secret to, hates her. She doesn’t fit in with anyone; “I am clanless”. As Melinda sits down she meets Heather, the new girl from Ohio. As school goes on Heather starts to hang out with the “Marthas” and ditches Melinda. Now she was officially friendless. Melinda’s art class is her only refuge and where her old friend Ivy starts to re-befriend her. Towards the end of the book Melinda finds her voice and the secret of her being raped gets out. Melinda starts to climb up in popularity ratings and realizes that what happened to her wasn’t her fault and “There is no avoiding it, no forgetting”.
During Speak Melinda’s dream is to blend in with everyone else and forget about the past. She tries to become invisible and to not be noticed by anyone. Towards the end she realizes that hiding from what happened isn’t going to make it hurt any less. Melinda finally tells Rachel about her experience even though she is convinced the Rachel won’t believe her. Rachel chooses to trust Melinda and they become friends again. Melinda than realizes that her true dream was to find her voice and realize who her true friends are. Through the novel the reader is able to see the change in Melinda. She starts as a character that won’t let the truth come out and becomes a character who realizes that letting out the truth can set a person free.
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Post by Noah Raecek on Aug 5, 2014 21:17:11 GMT
In the book Speak, Melinda is a protagonist. She is in ninth grade at Merryweather high. Her American dream is to be able to be heard. At the party where she calls the cops she was raped "IT". At first, in the beginning of the school year she has said nothing to anyone about the party. She believed that she was ,"an outcast". She ,"had no friends." She talks to nobody. All of her friends from last year were not friends with her anymore because of what she did. Going to school is hard for Melinda. She skips school often. When she becomes friends with Heather she is much more happy. But when Heather abandons Melinda to go with the Martha's she is upset. The only thing that Melinda enjoys at this point in the book is going to art class with Mr. Freeman. About towards the end of the book Melinda has a change in her life. She realizes that what happened on the night of the party she can't cover up or hide from for the rest of her life. She wants to do something. This is her American dream throughout the novel. The reader finds out that the "It" is Andy Evans a senior. When Melinda's old friend Rachel is falling in love with Andy Evans Melinda wants to tell her what had happened. She is very hesitant because she thinks that Rachel does not like her. She decides to tell Rachel about what happened at the party. At first Rachel does not believe her. Prom has just happened over the weekend. Monday morning Melinda hears all about prom. She hears that Rachel ditched Andy in the middle of the prom. Rachel finds out the truth about what happened that night. At the end of the book Andy Evans confronts Melinda about what had happened. They fight about it. Andy is mad because Melinda has exposed his secret about how he is "getting around". Melinda and Rachel become friends again. Melinda realizes that her dream was to speak up against wrong things that had happened to her. Then the book the reader can see how Melinda changed throughout the story. She went from not wanting to talk about what happened at the party in the beginning to at the end talking all about it and facing her fears. Melinda reaches her goal of speaking out against what has happened to her. The cost of achieving her dream was that she had to step out of her comfort zone in order to talk about what had happened on that night.
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Post by Danielle Crook on Aug 6, 2014 22:39:50 GMT
The protagonist in the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is Melinda. Melinda starts her first day of ninth grade feeling depressed with little to no friends. She feels as though she’s been labeled as an outcast by all of her classmates. Melinda’s American dream is to live a normal life with good friends, a caring family, and to be able to speak up. During the summer she called the cops at a party and her friends believe she did it to bust them. No one realizes that she was sexually assaulted at that party which has scarred her for life. Melinda suffers throughout her whole ninth grade year believing she has no one who truely cares about her.
The only escape Melinda has is in her art class. Her teacher Mr. Freeman assigns an end of the year project on a tree. The tree symbolizes her life and how she grows throughout the year. She begins to get frustrated when she can’t draw the tree as perfectly as she’d like. Mr. Freeman tells Melinda, “Perfect trees don't exist. Nothing is perfect. Flaws are interesting. Be the tree.” This quote inspires Melinda and as she grows she realizes that the tree doesn’t need to be perfect and can have some imperfections to be everything that she wants it to be. I believe Melinda never actually achieves her American dream that she wanted so badly. I think she realized that life will never be perfect and that’s what she needed all along.
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