Determination

Have you ever felt hopeless? Like you had no one? In the story Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda experiences this feeling. At the ‘end of summer party’ she gets sexually assaulted. When her drunken-self takes over, she calls the cops, finding that to be her only option, and everyone at the party gets busted. After this event, all of her friends and everyone she’s known for years has turned on her, leaving her all alone keeping this burden on her. Throughout the school year Melinda uses determination to build up the courage to finally face her predator. Determination is a major theme in the story, as well as other stories, for several reasons.

An example of determination in this essay is how Melinda finally builds up the courage to confront IT. Despite all the emotional pain he caused her over the course of the school year, she still gathers the strength to defend herself against him when he tries to abuse her in a janitors closet the last day of school. “I grab for anything, my potpourri bowl--I throw it at him, it bounces to the floor.” Instead of giving in and letting him hurt her she uses the items around her as defense. In the end she escapes from the closet, with the satisfaction that she just defeated her worst nightmare.

A second example of determination that’s shown in this novel is how Melinda carries through everyday with not a single friend left and still has the courage to make the effort to get new friends. For the beginning of the school year she sits alone everyday at lunch until a kind young girl offers to accompany her. That day at lunch begins their friendship. Little did Melinda know that friendship would soon end midway through the school year because of her ‘depressed attitude’. Melinda’s world turns upside down at the loss of her friend. She begins to realize that with this attitude, no one will want to be around her. Her ways begin to change and because of her bravery to speak up to IT, Melinda regains respect from many students at the end of the school year.

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins has a huge theme involving determination, too. An example in this book is when Katniss is at the reaping and hears her little sister, Prim, get called as a tribute. Following that event, Katniss volunteers in place of Prim. Since Katniss ‘wears the pants’ in the family, she is quite determined to win the Hunger Games, to come back home and support her family once again.

Another novel that includes determination as the main theme is Perfect by Natasha Friend. In this novel the main character has an eating disorder, bulimia. Throughout the book it explains her struggles and why she becomes bulimic. Isabelle, the main character, is determined to change her ways, and start eating right. In order to do so, she must join a support group with people experiencing the same issue. At the end of the novel she’s not completely cured but she is learning how to deal with the burden of grief.

The theme of determination is displayed in numerous novels, along with Speak. The feeling of hopelessness was eventually lost after Melinda stood up to IT. I believe the author’s message in this piece is to show readers that being determined to change something about yourself or to finally do that one thing you’ve been wanting to do for a while is something worth working towards.