Being at the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time

Authors Note: This is a text analysis piece focusing on the setting of the book Speak by Laurie Anderson.

Living in an ordinary town, attending an indecisive school, and starting ninth grade sounds almost like the typical kind of life for a teenager. Teenagers are supposed to go out and have fun, be with their friends and disobey their parents, and that’s how it all started. Melinda Sordino one night decided to lie to her parents about sleeping at a friend’s house, while she actually went to party some of class mates and even kids that are years older. Something happened that night that forced Melinda to call the cops, now she is friendless, scarred, and bullied.

The setting in this book controls the entire plot, if Melinda hadn’t gone to the party, or even if she went to another school, none of this would have happened. Melinda could still have friends, and she could still be happy, if only she had gone somewhere different or done something else that horrifying night. The unspeakable act that was forced upon her wasn’t her fault, but no one else knows that. All that her classmates know is that, there was this amazing party and some loser called the cops. Well, that loser had no other choice.

Life’s can change in a second, and everything in your life you had strived for could be gone, all because of one thing, one stupid mistake. Being at the wrong place, at the wrong time can get you into extreme consequences, even if none of it is your fault. Those kinds of things is what makes a book good, it’s what shapes the character and controls the plot, if in the book Speak Melinda hadn’t gone to the party, would there be a climax? Would there even be a point to reading it? So as you can see, settings can control everything that happens.