Author's Note: This is my Speak essay that I chose. I picked a character analysis/ POV/ prediction piece on Heather because she is my favorite character, besides Mr. Freeman. There is just so much potential for Heather's character that it just couldn't be ignored! :) I hope you enjoy it (even though it's super long)!
Rush. Hasty, urgent, quickly, swiftly, hurry-- These words are only literal to a certain extent. The dictionary lacks the explanation that only a person can rush something. Even if the attempt is desperately impossible… Rush is in fact a hasty thing. One cannot rush something that does not want to be rushed. One cannot rush something that can’t be rushed. And the one thing that people want to rush most: Time.
Time can be dreadful, but is also not the one to blame. Heather, from Speak, doesn’t necessarily blame time either, nor does Melinda. Both of them share the same fear, the same hatred, the same despair of the moment: High-School. They both want to rush this. They need it to be rushed. But their haste is blinding them from common logic: Time is time, it’s organized, paced, and most importantly, cannot be stopped and cannot be altered. It is on a strict schedule, determined to heal, teach, and even punish people as it ticks on.
Heather is a determined young girl though. Typical in a way, yet so desperate to be typical. She is determined to rush time, so High-School will be over before she can even get a good look at it. Because she doesn’t want to look at it. She’s seen enough damage already done to her sort-of friend Melinda, who is also, counting down the days till graduation. But unlike, Melinda, Heather doesn’t literally show her intentions. If you look closely, you can understand her logic, otherwise, it is masked by the smile plastered to her face.
The main problem: She doesn’t understand. I mean, why do people have to separate , and have to “outcast” the others that are left stranded in the hallways of despair? She doesn’t know. She comes from Ohio, supposedly with a good attitude, supposedly ready to take on whatever High-School challenges her with. But what Speak, doesn’t explain is why she transferred. Why she seems so eager and happy at school, yet breaks down crying at home. No one cares enough to dig further into her thoughts, because she has no one.
Her first hint of rushing, is on the bus, the first day of school. Heather immediately sits next to Melinda, working herself into a one-way conversation, not bothering for Melinda to respond. First step: Find a Best Friend. Check.
She then eagerly prepares to hang out with Melinda. The book doesn’t explicitly say this though. But you can tell Heather has prepared for her arrival. She was probably thinking: Okay, okay, Melinda needs to come over soon, otherwise we can’t be BFFs. It’s a basic rule, friends need to hang out otherwise they’re only school-friends... Okay, let me just call her….wait! I need to prepare! What if she sees my room messy? She’d probably think I’m unorganized and unstylish… because the commercial bedrooms are always fresh, clean and stylish. But wait. What if she thinks I’m a neat freak? Well, that’s not as bad as a messy slob, I guess. Okay, I’ll clean it now and vacuum later… then it will be ready for when she comes over after school. Okay, phew, act clean, neat and stylish… Second Step: Seal the friendship. Check.
Heather is actually an indecisive girl-- as shown from her thought process. She doesn’t know who to be, exactly. Or, more specifically, she doesn’t know who the right person to be is, because she doesn’t want to choose wrong. All of this stress makes her choose hasty decisions. (Hasty. This is another part of rush, because she is still determined to make High-School go ASAP!) But not when it comes to choosing a clique. It takes long, hard thought on her part. This is one of the only things she doesn’t rush. Choosing the correct clique can determine your entire High-School status and reputation. She probably thinks that if she focuses on just this one part of High-School, the hard part will be over, and she can easily close her eyes throughout the rest of High-School.
Once her mind is made up, she quickly forces herself into the group, making again, hasty choices to do whatever it is the Senior Marthas please. She decorates the faculty lounge for them, decorates the prom for them and draws posters for them and even drags Melinda into it! If she hadn’t rushed herself, she wouldn’t have had to beg for Melinda’s help. She didn’t know what she got herself into, and once she did, she knew she couldn’t get out of it -- especially because that would require long, hard, thoughts. And she doesn’t have time for that. Well, she does, but she doesn’t like to think that way. Her logic is: If you keep thinking you’re running out of time, you will always rush yourself.
Her identity is still unknown though, and readjustments have to be made for the Marthas on occasion. Especially when she had to ditch Melinda, because her new reputation that was “Martha based”, required her to act cool, and that didn’t include Melinda who was holding her back. But until her true identity is located, and identified, she has to settle for temporary measures. On the first day of school, she smiles and acts polite. Trying to act normal, trying to blend in. The lack of identity also explains the mood swings. She claims in her bedroom (when she prepared to have Melinda over) that it was only “PMS”, but inside, she knows that it was her, not PMS, and that if she shows her lack of identity to Melinda, it will show insecurity… and that is the last thing a Martha wants to be known as…
Heather in general is just as bad as Melinda. If her point of view would’ve been showed instead of Melinda’s, they would probably be very similar in a sense of “who should I be?” and “what should I do?” terms.
The point of views would be panicked. Panic, rush, time. Time heals. Time teaches. Time= gradual. Time= location. Time= realization.
My prediction for them is that time teaches and heals. Melinda will heal from the abuse. She will also realize, gradually, who she is. Heather, most importantly, will have to stop and stare eventually. Rushing takes energy and effort-- two things that are not consistent. She will have to breathe sometime, and when she does, time will take its course. Even if she does not believe so at the moment. If only, she wasn’t blinded from common logic.
Rush. Time. Mend. Heal. Teach. Learn. Prepare. Ready. Set. Go. Move on…
