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Part 3, Chapter 20
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
Upset by a cheer that goes, “The horny, horny hornets,” the PTA is trying to eradicate the hornet as the school mascot. The Honor Society, meanwhile, attempts to save the hornet, arguing that the students have suffered “psychological harm” because of the “year’s lack of identity.” Melinda reacts with apathy.
The subplot of the mascot continues, as the unruly students of Merryweather begin fighting to keep their hornet identity. Melinda, occupied with far more serious concerns, finds their passion ridiculous. The way in which the Honor society so freely throws around ideas of “psychological harm” suggests how mental illness is often treated as a joke, even as Melinda’s actual mental trauma goes unrecognized by all around her.
Themes
