In Speak, the author, Laurie Halse Anderson, illustrates the idea that people can recover after trauma and become stronger. The writer utilizes the first-person point of view to show the path protagonist goes through to her transformation. The first-person point of view is the type of narrative in which events are described from the narrator’s point of view using the pronouns “I,” “we,” “me,” “us.” Throughout the book, readers can see the theme of a traumatic event’s consequences, the experiences associated with it, and recovery from it.
The book is structured like a diary of the main character Melinda Sordino, who survived violence by a classmate, and at the same time, became an outcast in school. Readers have access to all her thoughts and feelings, introspection, and attempts to find a way out and speak about the problem. The narrator states, “I want to confess everything, hand over the guilt and mistake and anger to someone else. There is a beast in my gut, I can hear it scraping away at the inside of my ribs. Even if I dump the memory, it will stay with me, staining me.” (Anderson, 1999, p. 38). Readers understand that Melinda feels dirty, a terrible event haunts her, and at the same moment, she feels guilty, like most victims of violence, although she did nothing.
Feelings of anger and guilt depress Melinda, most clearly manifesting in the fact that she hardly speaks. After some time, the young girl feels a desire to free herself: “A small, clean part of me waits to warm and burst through the surface” (Anderson, 1999, p. 122). An example of her recovery from injury is the bold statement, “It wasn’t my fault. And I’m not going to let it kill me. I can grow” (Anderson, 1999, p. 128). When readers see this courage, after all the experience, they understand what transformation Melinda goes through. The main character can recover, although it took a lot of braveness and time. Thus, it is clear that the author’s use of the first-person point of view helped illustrate the idea that changes and healing are possible after trauma.
Reference
Anderson, L. H. (1999). Speak. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.