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Part 2, Chapter 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Speak, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Coming of Age
Communication versus Silence
Appearance versus Reality
Family and Friendship
Isolation, Loneliness, and Depression
Memory and Trauma
Summary
Analysis
Melinda’s Spanish teacher finally speaks in English, yelling at the class to stop pretending not to understand her so that they can escape doing homework. Melinda chooses five verbs to conjugate for her homework in order to avoid going to detention: they include “to translate,” “to flunk,” “to hide,” “to escape,” and “to forget.”
The theme of adults miscommunicating with high schoolers continues as Melinda’s Spanish teacher lays down the law with her students. Melinda’s choices of verbs are highly symbolic, revealing her fears (flunking) and her desires (hiding, escaping, and forgetting).
Themes
