To fulfill the role of an active and involved parent there are several qualities you must have. Some of these qualities include being loving, caring, and open minded. Unlike Melinda’s mom you have to take care of yourself in order to take care of a child. Melinda’s mom “lives on cigarettes and black coffee” and she wonders why Melinda is always forgetting to take showers. In the novel “Speak”, Melinda is depressed and because of lack of communication and love from her family, her recovery is much slower than necessary.
Every teenager's dream would be to have parents they can talk to. Sadly Melinda doesn’t have this. When her dad arrives home from work “I vanish”. There is no hi or how was your day? The broken apart family communicates “with notes”. They believe this system is a good way of talking but actually it is tearing their family apart. Melinda’s mom never talks one on one with her daughter causing her to not know what’s happening in Melinda’s life. A family without communication is like a car without gas; it won't move on.
Because Melinda’s family has such a poor relationship and they don’t talk, Melinda has no one to go to. She feels like she is alone, no friends, no mom, and no dad. The loneliness causes her to let out her emotions by “scratching it across the inside of my left wrist” and “draw little window cracks of blood”, instead of talking. She figures if she can keep quiet all her troubles will go away.
Even though Melinda’s parents didn’t help recover from her depression, once Melinda found who she really was everything was better. Melinda’s problems would multiply when she kept them bottled inside of her. They ate away at her and the only way to fix this was to speak. Hiding in a “closet” may seem safe and the only place she could hide from her fears, but eventually they will catch up to her. Fortunately as Melinda progressed as a person she realized you have to stand up for what you believe and the easiest way to do so is buy saying “No”. Grasping who she was on the inside was the best thing Melinda could do for herself. It is too bad that it took her a whole year of suffering to realize what she needed to do. If her parents would have been there for her, she wouldn't have had to suffer as much.
Melinda could have possibly gotten control of her emotions quicker if her parents were more involved and interested in what was happening in her life. All it takes is one cry telling what you believe. Speak and if something is wrong and you know it deep inside tell someone. No matter what you think someone is always willing to listen; all you have to do is find the right person.
I liked the vocabulary you chose it really put an image in my mind about Milinda. Your strength is the fact that you can use many different ideas, that being said it sounds a bit like a summary. Though overall it was a good esay.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your introduction, it was very strong. I also liked how you used phrases, they really helped me understand how Melinda was feeling.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your word choice and how you didnt bring in to many quotes from the book. Also the rest of your essay fit perfectly with your introduction. While i was reading your eassay i felt like i was in side the book and was one of the characters.
ReplyDeleteI loved this! It was really interesting and made me think about my relationship with my parents. It made me thankful for the parents that I have and the parents that I could have had instead.
ReplyDeleteThis was a well written paper. Your Introduction was very well written, as well with your conclusion. You also did a great job of describing what depression really is. It made me realize that kids shouldn't take their parents for granted. Possibly next time, you may want to change the subject of the book nstead of keeping the same topic in your body paragraphs. Otherwise your wrote a great paper.
ReplyDeleteYou're essay was really good. You explained depression really good and used really good descriptive words.
ReplyDeleteSarah- This essay was wonderfully composed:] You used alot of text evidence, that shone through in this essay. You used alot of descriptive words throughout the paper, which made it more interesting to read. Overall great job!
ReplyDeleteSarah- That was a very well written paper,you had a lot of text evidence that really added to it. You also used a lot of good words wich gave it a little something more.
ReplyDeleteGood job writing this Sarah. I like how you used all of the text evidence, and you had a good variety of words. Like what Lucy said, it did make me think about my relationship with my parents, and it made me feel good that our relationship isn't as bad as Melinda’s. I also liked your conclusion a lot.
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