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Part 4, Chapter 22
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
Starving from the exercise of riding her bike when she gets home, Melinda eats a large lunch and then gets to work gardening for the entire afternoon. Her mother and father are impressed, and because of the warm night, the family eats together on the patio without a single fight.
Melinda’s moment of healing seems to affect her whole family. For once, her parents do not bicker with each other, giving Melinda (and the reader) hope that her family may connect after all.
Themes
After napping, Melinda takes the bike out at night, riding by Heather, Nicole, and Rachel’s houses. It is prom night, and she imagines Rachel’s parents waiting up for their daughter. Feeling like a bird, Melinda contemplates never sleeping again.
Reveling in her new feeling of freedom, Melinda still remains an outsider. She observes her former friends’ lives, but makes no effort to be a part of them.
Themes
