Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Speak, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Coming of Age
Communication versus Silence
Appearance versus Reality
Family and Friendship
Isolation, Loneliness, and Depression
Memory and Trauma
Summary
Analysis
Melinda’s parents scold her for her low grades and poor attitude. She imagines her mother as a psychotic Glenn Close, and her father as Arnold Schwarzenegger. She calls the entire conversation “performance art,” believing that her parents are only pretending to care about her for show. Although they threaten and cajole her, Melinda refuses to speak to them, instead excusing herself from the table. In their daughter’s absence, her parents begin attacking each other, as Melinda in her bedroom drowns them out with music.
As her parents yell at her, Melinda disengages completely. This passage clearly shows how incompetent Melinda’s parents are at dealing with her, but also how unwilling Melinda is to open up to her parents in any way. This dynamic is an incredibly dysfunctional one, and rises not just from Melinda’s depression, but also from her parents’ troubled relationship with each other.
Themes
