Psychologists usually agree that the teenage years are among the most difficult periods in one’s life. Most teens are trying to figure who they are, what they believe, and how they fit into the world around them. Beginning in the late 1970’s, a whole genre of fiction, referred to as coming-of- age literature, emerged and serves, at least for many teens, as believable presentations of young people learning to navigate the difficulties of their lives, often fraught with feelings of rejection, seemingly unresolvable personal turmoil, social problems, school and family issues, etc. Indeed one value of reading is to see and better understand some aspects of ourselves through studying others. The reading of SPEAK, a somewhat controversial book because of its subject matter – rape–, is a worthwhile endeavor in any middle school classroom and offers many valuable life lessons to young teens.
Resilience is a key life moral for one to learn that is essential to a successful life. It is one of the main lessons that can be extracted from the novel SPEAK. The definition of resilience is the ability to get back on the right path after a traumatic or scary event that occurs in life. Facets of a resilient person include being able to adapt to change and being able to understand other people. Melinda, a high-school freshman struggling to recapture her once happy life after her rape, recounts her traumatic memories saying, “There is a beast in my gut, I can hear it scraping away at my ribs. Even if I dump the memory, it will stay with me, staining me” (51).
As Melinda was still enduring the dreadful, lingering emotions post-rape, she continued to beat up herself with the quote, “ I want to confess everything, to hand over the guilt and . .ctly shown that Melinda’s thoughts gear readers to see many traits of people that suffered traumatic events and are able to return to their former personalities. All of the valuable lessons learned during the reading of SPEAK are encompassed by the main idea of resilience, which is the ability to bounce back from a terrifying event. Melinda showed the importance of participating in “flow” activities and maintaining healthy relationships with friends and family. Additionally, Melinda displays the horrors of rape to educate people about the terrible effects of rape and the book makes sure to deter people from engaging in crimes such as rape.
The lessons that can be learned from SPEAK are priceless in that they can save lives and help everyone reach their utmost potential, making SPEAK a book that should be carried on the shelves of all middle school classrooms.
