“Speak” Review

Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel “Speak” is a shocking narrative, and it is meant to be. The story follows a young girl, Melinda,  who is raped at a party and then ostracized by her peers for calling the cops. Over the course of the novel, she gains the courage to speak out about her experience when she realizes she has to protect other girls from going through what she did. 

Although the rape and overcoming her fear of revealing it is the major theme of the novel, there are some other things that are worth picking apart. Anderson also explores the importance of social groups and how far teenagers will go to find acceptance. Another underlying motif is the power of art to both give a voice to trauma and to aid in its healing. The book utilizes symbolism in a way that is very accessible even if the reader is not very familiar with how symbols are used in literature. 

The book might be useful in teaching symbolism if not for one thing–to my thinking, the content does not match the lexile level. This book is a very easy read at 690L, which puts it on level to be read by fifth graders. I am generally against censorship of ideas, but I also have to exercise good judgement. And I could not in good conscience hand a book about the rape of a fifteen year old girl to children aged 10-12. 

At the same time, as an education major and soon -to-be teacher, the thought of spending valuable classroom time with 9-10 graders (for whom the content is more appropriate and relevant) on a book four to five grades below their reading level physically pains me. I just do not think it would be a good use of time when it does not prepare them for the rigour of reading they will face on the state test. This week I saw a practice exam with a passage from Mark Twain’s “Life on the Mississippi,” a text I had difficulty chewing on in college. It would be a disservice to the kids to spend time on this instead of preparing them to comprehend heftier texts. 

This book is a classroom dilemma that makes me cringe because I think there’s an important message there to be told and that students in today’s world likely need to hear, but it’s like a dessert without a main dish. There’s plenty of theme and symbolism and imagery and all those favorite buzz words of English teachers for the kids to snack on, but there is no meat to back it up when it comes to comprehension.  I think there are other texts that could send the same message, while still challenging readers to reach their full potential. 

*Soapbox moment warning* SUCH AS, I DON’T KNOW, PERHAPS MAYA ANGELOU’S “I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS” WHICH WAS RECENTLY BANNED IN THE DISTRICT I’M INTERNING AT EVEN THOUGH THE TEACHER OFFERED TO SKIP THE CHAPTER IN ANGELOU’S MEMOIR THAT IS DEEMED TOO EXPLICIT BECAUSE IT TALKS ABOUT HER RAPE AS A CHILD. THE SAME DISTRICT THAT ENCOURAGED TEACHERS TO DO UNITS ON THIS BOOK, WHICH ALSO DETAILS THE RAPE OF A MINOR….SORRY BUT THAT SOUNDS LIKE IT’S OK FOR A WHITE GIRL TO SPEAK OUT ABOUT TRAUMA BUT NOT OK FOR A BLACK WOMAN TO DO SO. THEY LITERALLY BANNED MAYA ANGELOU ON THE FIRST WEEK OF FEBRUARY, HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH Y’ALL. *Soapbox descended*

I am sorry I have lots of feelings. They are not the fault of this book however. I would recommend this text on books of recommended reading for students in high school (not middle school) but would not devote classroom time to it unless a student wanted to talk about it.