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
Merryweather High holds Job Day, which Melinda mercilessly mocks. After taking an aptitude test, she is given a bewildering array of options that include “forestry” and “mortuary science.” Heather, meanwhile, is delighted to be told that she should become a nurse; she plans her life right then and there, and Melinda marvels at her certainty. She can’t think about a career until she “get[s] out of ninth grade alive.”
Job Day, of course, is a somewhat ridiculous event to Melinda because she doesn’t truly believe that she has a future. This lack of ambition or forward-thinking is only more apparent when Melinda compares herself to the driven, over-enthusiastic Heather.
Themes
