Speak: Discussion

     During my group's latest Lit Circle Discussion, we talked about the idea of rape. After reading to the end of the second paperclip, which is also titled as the "Third Marking Period," we find out that Melinda was raped during the end-of-summer cheerleader party Rachel, her ex-best friend, brought her to. My group proposed the question "Why did Melinda call the cops when she was not able to speak up about the incident?" which lead to the question "Why does rape take place?"
     My group decided that there are many reasons to why rape happens and that the resulting reaction from the individual who is raped can vary between not having a second thought about the incident, depression and silence, and/or committing suicide. It all depends on the individual because some people are able to accept what happened sooner than others, allowing them to move on with their life; however, those who are unable to accept the incident eventually leads to the incident controlling them, leading to minor cases like not talking and becoming unsocial, or to the point of choosing death.
     I commented on Melinda's resulting effect by saying that it was not very smart of her to not speak up when the incident was impacting her negatively. Even she realizes that revealing the incident may be able to improve her ability to accept what happened but she constantly holds back.
     I also think that the people around her are not helping. For one, she somehow seems disconnected from her parents. They do not really communicate and even when they try to, something always seem to come up. Melinda also does not try to communicate with her parents. The way Melinda and her parents seem to operate is as though they all do their own things and they only discuss their needs when they have to. Two, it does not help when Melinda no longer has any friends to help her through the situation. All of her friends disappeared when Melinda decided to call the cops during the party but she does not tell them the reason why. If a person does not speak up, no one can tell what they are thinking so it is kind of impossible for Melinda to expect her friends to understand her when she keeps silent.