Speak Essay

A Roller Coaster Ride

Your head is filled with everything negative you can fill it with, life doesn’t matter to you anymore, and you just feel like giving up. This is what Melinda, the main character in Speak by Laurie Anderson felt when she was beginning to notice she was depressed. Teen depression is a serious cause that can be started in many ways. Loss of friends or boyfriend/girlfriend, ancestor genes, death, disease and many others, there are endless possibilities. But Melinda had a combination of these possibilities to lead to her depression. The novel Speak teaches a great lesson on how important it is to live life as “alive” as you can, and the dangers of teen depression.

Melinda is one of the many teens who have suffered from teenage depression. There are many different ways that teens get depression but Melinda was raped, and then lost her friends because she wouldn’t speak and tell them the truth of what happened. Melinda wasn’t mentally strong in the beginning of the book. But throughout the struggles she went through she became stronger after being forced to go through very tough times. Along with Melinda’s friend life and being sexually assaulted she didn’t have a very good relationship with her parents at home. Her parents were always fighting and not excepting her for who she is. Not getting any love or support from her parents made her depression even worse, like she was digging herself into a deeper hole. But towards the end of the book when she started getting support from friends and a little more from family it was like she had hit rock bottom and now was being led back up to the light. Melinda unfortunately is not the only teen who has gone through an experience like this.

Twenty percent of teens go through depression before they reach adulthood. But there are two main types of depression. Once can be called seasonal depression, where you only have signs of depression during the colder months. Then there is serious depression where you have depression for a long period of time such as years until you recover if you do. Luckily half the time people recover from depression but in some cases people live with depression for their whole lives, and unfortunately it is what kills some. Ninety percent of suicide victims have suffered from a mental illness or depression in their lifetime. It doesn’t seem fair that in some cases something such as losing a friend, can in the end, lead to suicide. Life itself can be disappointing and rewarding but in the end you just have to live to the fullest, which is what Laurie Anderson is trying to speak to you through her novel.

The message of this novel is about life itself and living it as you are alive and enjoying it. As children’s author Stacey Charter said, “Life can be like a rollercoaster…and just when you think you’ve had enough you jump back on, throw your hands in the air, and ride the rollercoaster all over again. That’s exhilaration…that’s living a little bit on the edge…that’s living ALIVE.” This novel teaches a great lesson on enjoying life and living it the best you can because you only get one. Melinda realized in the novel that she wasn’t living life to the fullest and she would regret the months that she wasted. Speak teaches a very clear message to readers that is very useful to live life as you are more alive.

Speak is an inspiring book with a clear message to readers to make life an extravagant experience, and to never regret it. Melinda had to learn the hard way and in the end she did regret wasting precious days of her life regretting she was alive. So don’t waste any time you have, and make life the best you can. Don’t be one of the teenagers that make up the twenty percent of teens who have depression, be one of the eighty percent that enjoy life and cherish every moment. So what are you going to do, get off the rollercoaster? Or jump back on, throw your hands in the air and live alive?