Speak Blog by Payton Miller https://padlet.com/millerpayton1/2c4pq3gvinil Payton Miller en-us 2019-09-13 17:36:15 UTC 2019-09-26 02:04:53 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.pics/1/image.webp?t=g_auto&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpadlet.net%2Ficons%2Fpng%2F1f33b.png Speak Blog 1 millerpayton1 https://padlet.com/millerpayton1/2c4pq3gvinil/wish/383925299 10 lies they tell you about the internet:

~ you can trust everyone you meet and everything you hear.
~ you will find completely accurate information online. 
~ the internet is a supportive place full of people who want to hear your voice.
~ there's no complexity to it at all, what you see is essentially what you get. 
~ the internet is a great place to meet new people (friends, relationships, etc).
~ the internet is not to be trusted.
~ everyone online aren't what they seem, they're just creepy old dudes catfishing you behind a screen.
~ don't turn to anyone or open up to anyone online, they aren't looking to help you and no one online really cares.
~ you don't actually know someone you met online, so their support is instead only manipulation.
~everything online is a trick, nothing is actually cut and dry.

Who or what is IT in Melinda's life? While it hasn't fully been revealed to us yet, I can see from the context that IT is baggage that Melinda is having a hard time letting go of. I personally think IT has something to do with the ending of Rachel and Melinda's friendship, and I think there's a strong possibility that IT may be a 'who' and not a 'what'. I feel that we never see much description of Melinda's physical being because for one what you look like really doesn't matter, it's how you hold yourself and how you act that does. I also feel it may have to do with the fact that she is an outcast, and this is her way of being isolated and unseen. She hides information about her physical and internal being because she wants to be isolated, she wants to be hidden. Going incognito is how Melinda prefers things to be. She is an outcast, partially from the past (that I can infer) and partially because she prefers to live this way. She compares her relationship with Rachel in a funny and clever simile: she says that she was “dropped like a hot Pop Tart on a cold kitchen floor.” (p.21) She is dropping herself while the others drop her too. It is ruining her life.

]]> 2019-09-13 18:04:18 UTC https://padlet.com/millerpayton1/2c4pq3gvinil/wish/383925299 Speak Blog 2 https://padlet.com/millerpayton1/2c4pq3gvinil/wish/387182854 Mel’s feelings of suppression are very clearly expressed in this part of the book. It starts out with a “Great Debate” in Mr. Neck’s class. Mr. Neck and David Petrakis are in a heated argument about people pouring in from other countries and stealing jobs away from Mr. Neck’s son. Mr. Neck blames it on the overabundance of people due to immigration, David points out the possibility that maybe there was an individual who was better qualified for the job. Mr. Neck shows some bigoted behavior and suppresses anyone who introduces the posibility that he could be wrong, which doesn’t sit well with him. Debates are meant for everyone to discuss what they think or how they feel, not to be told by a single individual how to think or how to feel. This causes Mel to feel even worse about adults and about speaking as a whole, especially to adults. This shows Mel that adults aren't always right, and supports the idea that Mel is powerless in her everyday life. Mel rarely expresses herself, we see her express herself the most in Mr. Freeman’s class, especially with the sculpture. In Mr. Freeman’s own words, her sculpture “has meaning, pain.” (p.65) This has many meanings. For one, a lot of people see her and interact with her in her life, yet none of them even notice she’s got baggage and she’s hurting. Or, none of them even care enough to point it out or to confront it.  Mr. Freeman is the only character in this whole story who genuinely cares enough to say anything to Mel about her feelings or about anything she has going on, even over her own parents. This leads me to believe that she will later open up to Mr. Freeman about her prior trauma. Also related to Mel’s prior trauma is the “Frog Incident”. David Petrakis and Mel are lab partners, assigned to dissect a frog. While David preps the frog for the “operation”, Mel has a flashback. She connects herself to the lifeless frog, it cannot fight back, it has to take what is coming because it is unable to fight back, as she once was. The trauma of that one night is still haunting Mel and affecting her everyday life. Mel has a hard time opening up to anyone, especially to adults. Mr. Freeman seems to be the closest adult in Mel’s life, as her parents aren’t in the picture all too often. Mel’s dad kinda just teaches her to suck it up, everyone has pain we all go through it, just be strong and get by. Her mom will rarely even give her the time of day. Plus, Mr. Neck suppressed David earlier and is teaching everyone that if they feel any different than he does about things then they’re automatically wrong. There are more bad adults in Mel’s life than there are good, and this could also be why Mel also chooses to live such a secluded life. In the paragraph at the top of page 87, Mel uses a good metaphor when talking about an interaction she had with her parents. It says “I watch the eruptions. Mount Dad, long dormant, now considered armed and dangerous. Mount Saint Mom, oozing lava, spitting flame.” Her parents were mad about her grades, her attitude, and her lack of help around the house, and they were getting on her about it. This is how she describes their lecture at the dinner table.]]> 2019-09-20 13:39:39 UTC https://padlet.com/millerpayton1/2c4pq3gvinil/wish/387182854 Speak Blog 3 millerpayton1 https://padlet.com/millerpayton1/2c4pq3gvinil/wish/389657092 The four chapters in this book symbolize the four quarters of her freshman year at school. This would be why they’re labeled “marking periods”, and why each one ends with a report card. In the Third Marking Period, we really see Mel’s inability to fit in with her peers as well as her struggle with identity. Mel is an outcast in regards to her freshman class. I feel that Mel’s peers aren’t as mature as she is, and that she’s on this new level of maturity due to the incident at the party. She searches for the deeper meaning in everything and is better able to distinguish fantasy with reality. She isn’t ready for this stage of life and was forced into it at the party. When reading The Scarlet Letter, Mel comes to terms with her embarrassment and her shame in not speaking up, which I feel will lead to her opening up a little to someone in the next marking period. Mel’s struggle with identity is pretty obvious to me in this section as well. I personally don’t think that Mel is the only student in her high school that is dealing with identity issues, I just think Mel’s is worse due to past experiences. Mel doesn’t really feel secure in herself or anyone else, and she’s much less trusting of people. The only place we see her truly relax and breathe is in her closet. No one in that school is confident in being themselves, the school itself isn’t even confident regarding identity. I think Mel’s lack of expression is impacted not only from the trauma, but also by her identity crisis. She said after the party she looked at herself in the mirror and couldn’t recognize herself. I feel that she wants to be isolated and without identity, due to the fact that she is more efficient when she is alone.

Literary device: “We are reading The Scarlet Letter one sentence at a time, tearing it up and chewing on its bones.” p.100
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