All over the country (and the world), people are trying to keep teenagers from
reading about real issues. So I read a banned book to see what I thought, and I
think that Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson should not be banned from
middle school libraries because it discusses a real issue and teaches an
important lesson to teenagers – that bad things happen, but they don’t have to
consume you.
Speak is a book about rape- a real issue for teenage girls (and boys too). The main character, Melinda, is a high school freshman. The summer before her freshman year, she is raped at a party by a senior named Andy Evans, who continues to taunt and terrify her throughout the school year. When you think about it, she's barely any older than us. And another thing- Melinda doesn't just let her assault overtake her. She knows that “[Andy] hurt me. It wasn't my fault. And I'm not going to let it kill me. I can grow" (Anderson 198). This shows that Melinda isn't just rolling over, letting this horrible thing that happened trick her into thinking she is nothing. Melinda is strong, and she shows readers that they can be too.
Some parents believe that Speak is too explicit for middle schoolers to read. They think that the rape and depression of a young teenager is something that other teens shouldn't read about. According to the article 'Darkness too Visible" by Sharon Gurdon, Speak is some of the "awful stuff" being directed at teens. Also according to Gurdon, almost all young adult books today are "images not of joy or beauty but of damage, brutality, and losses of the most horrendous kinds" (1). This is only part of the story.
People who want to ban Speak are only seeing some of the picture. The rest of it? Well, for one thing, Speak isn't actually all that explicit. There is one (sort of) sex scene and it's Melinda freaking out - "NO! -- I'm not really here, I'm definitely back at Rachel's, crimping hair and gluing on fake nails, and he smells like beer and mean..." - and nothing actually explicit. For another thing, the "joy and beauty" Gurdon was wondering about? It's not all that common in real life either. Years twelve to eighteen are not all sunshine and roses, much to some adults' surprise. This brings me directly to my next point. Speak teaches readers a lesson- that bad things do happen, yes, but they don't have to consume you. You can be strong. I think this is an incredibly important lesson, not just for teenagers, but for people in general.
Speak needs to stay in middle school libraries. It has a lesson that teenagers can’t afford to miss. It seems to me that the people pushing to ban Speak don’t want their children to learn about rape. But why keep children uninformed about real dangers like rape? Why risk real physical and mental pain due to cluelessness? We see the stories on the news about young girls being abducted and abused and we think “Oh, it could never happen to me,” but what if it does?
Speak is a book about rape- a real issue for teenage girls (and boys too). The main character, Melinda, is a high school freshman. The summer before her freshman year, she is raped at a party by a senior named Andy Evans, who continues to taunt and terrify her throughout the school year. When you think about it, she's barely any older than us. And another thing- Melinda doesn't just let her assault overtake her. She knows that “[Andy] hurt me. It wasn't my fault. And I'm not going to let it kill me. I can grow" (Anderson 198). This shows that Melinda isn't just rolling over, letting this horrible thing that happened trick her into thinking she is nothing. Melinda is strong, and she shows readers that they can be too.
Some parents believe that Speak is too explicit for middle schoolers to read. They think that the rape and depression of a young teenager is something that other teens shouldn't read about. According to the article 'Darkness too Visible" by Sharon Gurdon, Speak is some of the "awful stuff" being directed at teens. Also according to Gurdon, almost all young adult books today are "images not of joy or beauty but of damage, brutality, and losses of the most horrendous kinds" (1). This is only part of the story.
People who want to ban Speak are only seeing some of the picture. The rest of it? Well, for one thing, Speak isn't actually all that explicit. There is one (sort of) sex scene and it's Melinda freaking out - "NO! -- I'm not really here, I'm definitely back at Rachel's, crimping hair and gluing on fake nails, and he smells like beer and mean..." - and nothing actually explicit. For another thing, the "joy and beauty" Gurdon was wondering about? It's not all that common in real life either. Years twelve to eighteen are not all sunshine and roses, much to some adults' surprise. This brings me directly to my next point. Speak teaches readers a lesson- that bad things do happen, yes, but they don't have to consume you. You can be strong. I think this is an incredibly important lesson, not just for teenagers, but for people in general.
Speak needs to stay in middle school libraries. It has a lesson that teenagers can’t afford to miss. It seems to me that the people pushing to ban Speak don’t want their children to learn about rape. But why keep children uninformed about real dangers like rape? Why risk real physical and mental pain due to cluelessness? We see the stories on the news about young girls being abducted and abused and we think “Oh, it could never happen to me,” but what if it does?
Works Cited
Anderson, Laurie Halse.
Speak. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1999. Print.
Gurdon, Meghan Cox.
"Darkness Too Visible" Wall Street Journal. Wall Street
Journal, 4 June 2011. Web. 9 Nov. 2013.
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