Adolescent Fiction: To Speak or Not to Speak

Sunday, April 22, 2012

To Speak or Not to Speak

Speak is a book that teaches adolescents the power of words. Whether it is the power of not using them or the power of using them, there is power within one words. The main character, Melinda, falls speechless or rather lacks the amount of speech one teenage girl might have, after suffering a rape at a high school party. When her voice fails her during the rape, she then fails to use her voice from then on. Voice is definitely a symbol of power throughout the book through Melinda, Mr. Freeman, and the student body.
When Melinda stops speaking up for what she wants or believes in, people started making choices for her. Mr. Neck made the decision to throw her in detention or give her a failing grade, because she failed to have power of her voice and convince him that she lost and did not want detention, nor was she deserving of a failing grade due to the fact she completed the report assigned. Melinda loses her voice and no longer can get what she wants at home, that she wants her parents to stop fighting, that she wants them to pay more attention to her, and that when it comes time and she has wounds of cutting her wrist, her parents should make time to help her. Because Melinda does not use her voice, she does not have any power in any situations that fell into her hands.
Mr. Freeman does not have the type of voice that you might expect. The way he paints he speaks of what he wants, or doesn't want. From his picture of the school board in the school behind bars, he reveals his strong dislike for the board and that they make this school feel like a prison. Mr. Freeman isn't afraid to speak up in class the dislike he has for the board not giving him funds for new supplies. He definitely seems to have a lot of voice. His power is represented in how his students respect his space. When the principal comes storming in, the music is switched off and the students hide their food to help protect Mr. Freeman. I think that he has a lot of power within his classroom and among his students.
The student body has the most power in this book. They are able to sway the vote of the new mascot, pass rumors of Melinda calling the cops at the party, and completely ruining Andy Evan's reputation. The student body has so many voices that work as a power of one. This by far is the most powerful voice within the book. It is the source of how Melinda's reputation started and how she found her voice with the support of the students' voices. Without their support, I don't think she would have been able to come out of her fog.

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Post #9 Shakespeare Bats Cleanup (due MONDAY, 4/30 by class time)

Shakespeare Bats Cleanup explores a number of themes, among them grief, identity, coming of age (Bildungsroman), friendship, love, and others. Kevin, our adolescent narrator, shares his story with us as a poetic narrative which includes poems written in conventional forms and free-form poems. Choose one theme which the book develops, and show its development through the text. As you do so, be sure to consider and articulate how the book's structure (as poems) affects whatever theme you discuss.

Post #7 Warriors Don't Cry (due Sunday 4/15 by 8 pm)

Choices for responses:

1. The title of this text refers to warriors. How are the characters warriors? Are you comfortable with that depiction? Why or why not? Be sure to offer specific description as you explore characterization.

2. While it could certainly be argued that the author of our last novel does place himself in the text, that book is fiction. This text is not; rather, it's a memoir. How does knowing that the book is non-fiction shape your reading of it? Does it cause you to respond differently? If so, how? If not, why not? Consider characters, events, and the historical context carefully as you respond.

Post #6 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (due Sunday, 3/25 by 8 pm)

Post #5 Annie on My Mind (part 2) due Sun 3/11 by 8 pm

You have several different options for your response:

1. How is social transgression framed and treated in the novel? Do you as a reader find that the characters are affirmed or punished for stepping outside of social conventions?

2. We've talked a bit about parallel spaces in texts, spaces in which characters encounter very different experiences. After reading this novel, can we argue that those parallel spaces never intersect? What function might those separate (or not so separate) spaces serve?

3. The story is written in the epistolary (letter writing) tradition. How does that framing affect your reading? Your interaction with characters? Your response?

Post #3 Due by Monday's class (2/20)

For this post, you have three options:

1. Respond to some theme you identify in the novel. Be sure that you make a claim and support it using specific examples from the book.

2. Apply the article's claims to the novel. Be sure that you make a claim and support it using specific examples from the article and the book.

3. Examine the novel as science fiction. How is it both utopic and dystopic in its function? What might it be warning us as a society against? Be sure that you make a claim and support it using specific examples from the text.

Post #1 Due by Thursday's class (1/26)

Ellen Raskin's novel The Westing Game is a detective novel, yes, but we can tease out many themes as we examine the text. A few we introduced and explored briefly in class today:

the Cinderella effect

the roles of women

identity construction

gaming and strategy

trust (as it relates to other themes or on its own)

oppressive/repressive (think Trites) parents

Choose from a theme on this list or choose a theme you've noted in the text, and write about the way the theme is introduced and developed through the novel. As you show how the theme works throughout the book, be sure to offer specific examples to support your ideas.