Speak part 1

I have chosen to read the book Speak by Laurie Halson Anderson. So far its been going smoothly and i have been very engaged through the use of post-its for annotations. The post-its are areas where I can keep track of what is happening in the story, ideas that come to my head, and potential questions for discussion. The discussion my group members and I had on Friday was interesting because we shared many of the same ideas and questions.

For example, Kim brought up the topic of how it seems that the people who used to be Melinda's friends are now b**ches and how Melinda seems to also be a b**ch in her on way. She also asked the very same question I was thinking of, what does it really mean to be b**tch, what factors determine if a person is one.
I responded to this by saying that a b**tch is a person who manipulates or uses others, has a mean attitude, and has the tendency to screw over their friends.  My definition of b**tch relates to a couple of characters. Melinda's former best friend, Rachelle relates to my definition because her Melinda used to be friends, but she has now completely screwed her over and has ignored her since arriving in high school. Melinda also falls into my definition because she is using Heather so she wont look like a loner and loser. If she had a group of friends then she probably would have never been friends with Heather.

Another example of how my group members and I had similar ideas was when i asked about the janitor's closet which Melinda had found. I asked if the closet symbolized or represented anything. John responded by saying that the closet represented an area of silence. calmness, and safety where Melinda could hang out in. He said that this closet would protect from the dirty looks and attitudes of high school. This is exactly what I had thought about. I responded to this by explaining how the fact that Melinda is home alone most of the time and she is not very close with her parents is what leads to her being on her own a lot.

Overall the book has been interesting and has not bored me. I look forward to further discussions about the book.