Melinda’s mother Character Analysis in Speak

Overworked and distracted, Melinda’s mother is aware that her daughter has suddenly become withdrawn and depressed, but has no idea why. Rather than attempting to understand and connect with Melinda, her mother instead reacts with frustration and anger. Even when she sees that Melinda has intentionally hurt herself, she reacts coldly and dismissively. She also has a strained and combative relationship with Melinda’s father, even more reason for Melinda to distrust the adults in her life.

Melinda’s mother Quotes in Speak

The Speak quotes below are all either spoken by Melinda’s mother or refer to Melinda’s mother. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

). Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Farrar Strauss Giroux edition of Speak published in 2011.

It is getting harder to talk. My throat is always sore, my lips raw. When I wake up in the morning, my jaws are clenched so tight I have a headache. Sometimes my mouth relaxes around Heather, if we’re alone. Every time I try to talk to my parents or a teacher, I sputter or freeze. What is wrong with me? It’s like I have some kind of spastic laryngitis.

I know my head isn’t screwed on straight. I want to leave, transfer, warp myself to another galaxy. I want to confess everything, hand over the guilt and mistake and anger to someone else. There is a beast in my gut, I can hear it scraping away at the inside of my ribs. Even if I dump the memory, it will stay with me, staining me. My closet is a good thing, a quiet place that helps me hold these thoughts inside my head where no one can hear them.

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Page Number and Citation: 50

Explanation and Analysis:

Cooking Thanksgiving dinner means something to her. It’s like a holy obligation, part of what makes her a wife and mother. My family doesn’t talk much and we have nothing in common, but if my mother cooks a proper Thanksgiving dinner, it says we’ll be a family for one more year. Kodak logic. Only in film commercials does stuff like that work.

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Page Number and Citation: 58

Explanation and Analysis:

Applesmell soaks the air. One time when I was little, my parents took me to an orchard. Daddy set me high in an apple tree. It was like falling up into a storybook, yummy and red and leaf and the branch not shaking a bit. Bees bumbled through the air, so stuffed with apple they couldn’t be bothered to sting me. The sun warmed my hair, and a wind pushed my mother into my father’s arms, and all the apple-picking parents and children smiled for a long, long minute.

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Page Number and Citation: 66

Explanation and Analysis:

I bet they’d be divorced by now if I hadn’t been born. I’m sure I was a huge disappointment. I’m not pretty or smart or athletic. I’m just like them— an ordinary drone dressed in secrets and lies. I can’t believe we have to keep playacting until I graduate. It’s a shame we can’t just admit that we have failed family living, sell the
house, split the money, and get on with our lives.

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Page Number and Citation: 70

Explanation and Analysis:

I almost tell them right then and there. Tears flood my eyes. They noticed I’ve been trying to draw. They noticed. I try to swallow the snowball in my throat. This isn’t going to be easy. I’m sure they suspect I was at the party. Maybe they even heard about me calling the cops. But I want to tell them everything as we sit there by our plastic Christmas tree while the Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer video plays.

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Page Number and Citation: 72

Explanation and Analysis:

I open up a paper clip and scratch it across the inside of my left wrist. Pitiful. If a suicide attempt is a cry for help, then what is this? A whimper, a peep? I draw little windowcracks of blood, etching line after line until it stops hurting. It looks like I arm-wrestled a rosebush.
Mom sees the wrist at breakfast.
Mom: “I don’t have time for this, Melinda.”

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Page Number and Citation: 88

Explanation and Analysis:

I stumble from thornbush to thornbush— my mother and father who hate each other, Rachel who hates me, a school that gags on me like I’m a hairball. And Heather.
I just need to hang on long enough for my new skin to graft. Mr. Freeman thinks I need to find my feelings. How can I not find them? They are chewing me alive like an infestation of thoughts, shame, mistakes.

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Page Number and Citation: 125

Explanation and Analysis:

Melinda’s mother Character Timeline in Speak

The timeline below shows where the character Melinda’s mother appears in Speak. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Melinda begins to discuss her home life, which mainly involves avoiding her parents and ordering takeout. She says that, in general, her family communicates only through notes: her... (full context)

...while she has meals, and the other way to make them appear pristine for her parents. When her father comes home, Melinda flips the cushions so that “everything looks the way... (full context)

...decides that she doesn’t want to try to redecorate because doing so would cause her parents to argue. (full context)

Melinda’s parents scold her for her low grades and poor attitude. She imagines her mother as a... (full context)

Melinda’s parents try to force her to stay after school for extra help from her teachers, but... (full context)

Although she is incredibly stressed out by her job and the upcoming winter holidays, Melinda’s mother insists on cooking a turkey for Thanksgiving (despite the fact that this has led to... (full context)

...as the turkey floats in the sink in a bath of warm water, and Melinda’s mother deals with a crisis at work. Melinda refers to the floating turkey as a “turkeyberg”... (full context)

...specimen perfectly next to her, the smell causes Melinda to flash back to a happy moment in her childhood, when she visited an apple tree orchard with her parents. She remembers... (full context)

With both her parents at work, school out, and two days till Christmas, Melinda’s mother tells her (via note)... (full context)

Melinda speculates that if she hadn’t been born, her parents would probably be divorced by now. She reflects that they must be disappointed in her,... (full context)

...angel, Melinda remembers first grade, when her family lived in a smaller house and her parents were happier; her mother worked at a jewelry counter and “was home after school,” while... (full context)

...are a TV for her room, skates, and a sketch pad with charcoals because her parents have noticed her drawing. Touched by the fact that they’ve noticed, she begins to cry,... (full context)

...night of the party: how she snuck home later that night, but neither of her parents were in the house; in fact, her mother didn’t return until 2 AM, and her... (full context)

Melinda’s parents decide that she can’t simply sit around the house during her Christmas vacation. She tries... (full context)

...office, but is angry about how much easier his life seems than that of her mother, who is exhausted and will soon have to fire many of her employees. Her father,... (full context)

Melinda needs stitches, and is taken to the hospital by her mother. As the doctor shines a light into her eyes, she wonders whether the examination will... (full context)

Melinda’s guidance counselor calls her mother to report her terrible grades. Melinda sarcastically comments that she should get the counselor a... (full context)

Melinda does her homework and shows it to her parents. Afterwards, however, she writes a runaway note and goes to sleep in her bedroom closet.... (full context)

Melinda misses her bus because of the winter darkness, but her mother refuses to drive her to school, telling her to walk through the snow instead. As... (full context)

...of her clothes from last year fit. She wonders how she could shop with her mother without talking to her. She sits in a shaft of sunlight, taking off her winter... (full context)

After having her absences reported, Melinda and her parents have a meeting with Principal Principal, as well as the guidance counselor. Her mother holds... (full context)

...“sweet, loving little girl” who Melinda was “last year,” and threatens Principal Principal. As her mother snaps at him, the guidance counselor asks if the two have marital issues, and they... (full context)

Melinda imagines her parents and the guidance counselor performing a song-and-dance routine about her. She giggles, and her parents... (full context)

...even admits that it “feels good” to understand her teachers. Her guidance counselor convinces her parents that she needs a reward, and so her mother takes her shopping. (full context)

Rather than go to the mall together (an activity that they both hate), Melinda’s mother decides that her daughter will take the bus to her store, Effert’s, to shop. As... (full context)

Melinda enters Effert’s, only to find that her mother is on the phone. She grabs a pair of jeans and begins to lament the... (full context)

...hers has been “burned off,” or torn off by the “thornbushes” that are her fighting parents, the horrible Rachel, her repressive school, and the faithless Heather. She tells herself that she... (full context)

...to avoid the cafeteria as much as possible. When she writes a note to her mother asking for supplies to make bologna sandwiches, she comes home to find a fridge full... (full context)

...snow, she realizes that she’s bitten through her lip and will need stitches, causing her mother to be late for work. She reflects that she hates winter, and wonders why anyone... (full context)

Noting that Easter has come and gone, Melinda remembers how her mother used to make an Easter Egg hunt in the house for her, and how before... (full context)

...out as Ms. Keene discusses the last unit of biology: genetics. She thinks about her parents’ genes and families (her father’s relatives bet on football and smoke cigars, while her mother’s... (full context)

...it’ gene” from her father and her “‘I’ll think about it tomorrow' gene” from her mother. After Ms. Keene announces that they will have a quiz tomorrow, Melinda wishes that she’d... (full context)

...be sick, only to find that she actually does have a fever. She tells her mom that she doesn’t feel well. Her mother responds that if she’s talking, she really must... (full context)

In another turn of events, Heather has showed up at Melinda’s house, to Melinda’s mother’s delight. Feeling self conscious about her babyish bedroom, Melinda listens as Heather cries about how... (full context)

Feeling empowered by standing up to Heather, planting marigolds, and asking her mother if she can redecorate her bedroom, Melinda attributes her newfound confidence to the spring weather.... (full context)

...eats a large lunch and then gets to work gardening for the entire afternoon. Her mother and father are impressed, and because of the warm night, the family eats together on... (full context)