Heather. The new girl from Ohio desperately praying to fit in. Melinda. The freaky outcast Goth chick with a reputation so deep it would take a miracle to turn it all around. I'm sure, even without reading the novel (Speak), you know where this is going. Two polar opposites forced together by their desire to make a friend. Turns out they have more in common than they think.
You know that feeling that you get when you're reading a book and something pops up that seems totally irrelevant? Actually, 9 times out of 10 the author is giving you a hint. One of the scenes I remember the best for being just plain weird is the one where Melinda and Heather are in Heather's basement and Heather just jumps right onto the treadmill and goes for a spontaneous run. I know that I have been wondering the entire book why Heather is so strange. I mean who in their right mind just has a complete meltdown when a jar of nail polish spills on the carpet. Sure it might have been new carpeting, but still? Really? Isn't that a bit eccentric? After searching the book for anything regarding Heather's oddness I realized that Melinda has some pretty weird habits herself. I'm not even going to mention the whole fact that she tried to kill herself, but really, Melinda is a lifeless drone. She has no opinion. No interest. No nothing. Then it hit me. Heather and Melinda aren't complete opposites. They are exactly the same. They are mirrors.
Okay, call me crazy, go ahead, I won't mind, but you might just swallow you words soon enough.
First I'm going start out with Heather. Strange child. I might have mentioned that before, but it's all too true. To start out with, I went back to Heather's first real freak-out scene when her white carpet got stained with nail polish. She threw herself onto her bed and sobbed. Then she ended up crying even harder when Melinda tried to fix it but just ended up making it worse. Okay. So? Then I realize the biggest hint there. The carpet. It's white. And new. Just like Heather. Heather is fresh to the area. She's got a new room, new carpet, and completely blank slate. Melinda is just a little stain on her flawless record, but when you have no personality, no life to tell of in your whiteness, a little stain just might stand out a lot more than it would in a normal bedroom. Heather doesn't have any idea who she is, just that if she doesn't find a way to fit in, she might end up sticking out. Heather is just a reflection of whoever stands in front of her. Like a mirror. Like Melinda.
Melinda, at one point, might have cared what others thought of her, but her interest has long since gone. She has bigger problems than trying to fit into a stupid messed up high school social triangle. Bigger fish to fry so they say. Wrong. If that was the case, the book wouldn't be called Speak. People who don't care what others think of them can talk without wondering what the consequences will be. People who don't want to fit in don't hide from their parents because then they might just realize that there might be something wrong with their child. Then they would have to explain. Come clean. Coming clean would mean an end to Melinda. So she hides. Where nobody will find her; all the while, that little sane part of her still wishes somebody would reach out and notice. Her whole white carpet is soiled with mistakes and hatred, the trash of others being thrown on the freak, and the only one who won't throw their trash at her is the only one that can clean it and let the real Melinda out.
Sorry I lost you with that whole carpet metaphor, I guess I sort of got carried away. Happens.
Of course, Melinda isn't the same thing as Heather, other wise they would both be preppy Marthas, that, or depressed freaks. There is a difference though. Melinda doesn't have a clean slate. She doesn't have a new life and new, littler problems, she is stuck with all the baggage she's picked up over the years. She's dirty. A dirty, dirty girl.
Heather on the other hand is spit shine clean. She has no history, and, hate to say it, but no future either. But that doesn't matter. The main reason Heather is so much different is because she is clean. She has no baggage at this school. In this new life. With these new people. She can be whoever she wants to be. Isn't that what a mirror does?
Okay. Did you gobble those words right back up? I sure hope you did. Or I just might eat them for you.
Heather and Melinda aren't different. They aren't the same. They aren't anything. This whole book is not telling the story of two girls, but of those who chose to influence them. The Martha's. Andy Evans. IT. Rachelle. Mr. Freeman. Try to explain the look of the mirror, eventually you'll just end up describing the person looking back from the inside. Look as hard as you want to, but you won't find anything underneath the mirror but a blank wall.
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