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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The novel entitled Speak that is analyzed in this thesis is written by Laurie Halse Anderson. At the end of the book there is also comment from the author,
Laurie Halse Anderson, about the novel. Laurie talks about the idea of writing the novel which began when she had a nightmare. After she woke up at one night, she
heard a girl sobbing and directly checked her daughters but no one cried. She sat down at the computer and wrote out what she was hearing and the next morning
the character Melinda Sordino unfolded. The book is 198-page long and it is devided into four marking period. The book was published firstly in the United
States of America in 1999. Moreover, it was reprinted in 2003 by Penguin Putnam Inc., New York.
The novel has won several awards and honor including the 2000 Golden Kite Award and the 2000 ALA Best Book For Young Adults. Furthermore, Since
it was published, the novel has been translated into sixteen languages. This novel is about a life of a young girl named Melinda Sordino who is
not able to speak up the truth that she is raped by Andi Evans at the summer before her freshman year of her high school. She is raped in the outside of the
woods. She calls 911 but she does not say anything at all. The police comes and breaks the party. After the accident, Melinda still does not tell anyone about what
happened to her including to her family.
Melinda Sordino starts the high school as an outcast. She remains silent and does not tell anoyone about the accident and she always goes away when she
meets Andi Evans. She is given an art work by her art teacher, Mr. Freeman, that she has to deal with tree. She cannot do her art work and she thinks that her trees
are dying instead because she cannot make it live. She gets a bravery to speak up from her art teacher, her father and her friend, Ivy. At the end of the story, she
finally can fight againts her fear, Andi Evans. This makes her friends no longer treat her as an outcast but as a hero instead, and finally she can finish her art work
perfectly.
B. Approach of the Study
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