Trust, Scars, and Relationships

Everyone has something they’re not proud of. Everyone feels like their biggest flaws should be kept hidden away, where they can fester and die. In ‘Blue Gold’ by Elizabeth Stewart and ‘Speak’ by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main characters go through some difficult experiences. In ‘Speak’ a teenage girl Melinda gets raped at a summer party and calls the cops on her friends. She cuts off all communication, all her connections in school, for fear of letting her secret out. In ‘Blue Gold’, the three girls Sylvie, Fiona, and Laiping are connected through coltan, a material used to make cell phones. Each of them has a scar, a mark from their lives that they try to keep hidden from their family and friends. The two authors use a variety of different craft moves, to convey to their readers the same message. That when one mistrusts another in a relationship, that relationship becomes strained and difficult to keep, thereby making it harder to get through life together.

A common craft move both authors utilize to its full potential is character development. This development is shown through physical or emotional symbols in the character’s past, which helps the reader understand the character’s actions. This becomes especially impactful for the audience’s understanding of how vital trust is in a relationship. Sylvie, from ‘Blue Gold’ and Melinda, from ‘Speak’ both have similar scars from a similar experience and go through the same aftermath of rape. The difference here is, Stewart describes Sylvie with a “long scar on her face - from above her right eyebrow, across the bridge of her nose to her left cheek.” This scar is out in the open, where everyone can see, where “there was no way to hide it.” Because of her scar, Sylvie tries to become invisible to her community, thus making her past invisible too. Anderson uses a different kind of scar in Melinda’s story. Instead of making her scar obvious, Anderson depicts Melinda with “thoughts, whispers in my mind,” as well as Melinda’s habit of biting her lip off. Throughout the book, Melinda becomes more silent and more hidden.These scars, these symbols are significant because despite how different their scars and surroundings are, both girls are affected in the same way. Some may argue that their scars are insignificant, and only a part of their past, but through the use of physical and emotional symbols, Stewart and Anderson make the characters more understandable and relatable, thus creating a strong connection between reader and character.

It is clear that both books are powerful and grip the reader’s attention, but while ‘Blue Gold’ uses a raw, journalistic tone, ‘Speak’ uses a descriptive, fragmented style of writing to convey the same message. In the scenes that most impact the reader, Stewart uses dialogue and some inner thinking to illustrate the character’s motivations. As an example, in the end of Laiping’s story, when she loses Kai, the reader has to infer from the text what she’s feeling, and how fast the story is moving. In lines like “Laiping dug her fingernails into her palms, willing [the bus] to go faster,” Stewart uses the phrase ‘dug her fingernails into her palms’ to illustrate Laiping’s anxiety towards getting her freedom, or in this scene, reaching Kai. “Kai turned his face, bloodied and cowed to the window. He saw her, too, and his eyes filled with hatred.” At this point in the scene, the readers are just as confused as Laiping is, and words like ‘hatred’ and ‘bloodied’ ramp up the intensity. When Laiping realizes “He blames me for this! He thinks I gave him away!” she, and the audience are held in a moment of clarity. All at once, Laiping realizes where she went wrong. The main point here is Stewart didn’t use more vivid sentences to paint the picture. She wrote the story as it was, and let the reader connect and empathize with Laiping to finally understand the real story.

In ‘Speak’, Anderson uses a vastly different style to convey the same message, as mentioned before. As in one scene, Anderson draws the reader into Melinda’s shoes by writing about something her teenage audience can relate to easily. “Homework is not an option. My bed is sending out serious nap rays. I can't help myself. The fluffy pillows and warm comforter are more powerful than I am. I have no choice but to snuggle under the covers.” Not only does Anderson makes Melinda relatable, but she also changes the way the reader might think about an aspect of life, in this case, a bed. Anderson puts what some teenagers feel into the right words, and this helps the audience follow Melinda’s thinking, even though they may not have gone through the same experiences.

A more vivid and critical example of this is in Melinda’s everyday thoughts. A particularly powerful one would be “When people don't express themselves, they die one piece at a time. You'd be shocked at how many adults are really dead inside - walking through their days with no idea who they are, just waiting for a heart attack or cancer or a Mack truck to come along and finish the job. It's the saddest thing I know.” By using a first person narrative here, Anderson further pulls the reader in by using the word ‘you’. It feels like Melinda is talking to the reader, instead of the reader reading Melinda’s thoughts. Throughout the story, Anderson keeps the audience nodding their heads at the text. She grips the subconscious part of their minds and brings what seems like unknown thoughts to their attention. Some argue that Anderson’s style of writing makes the story depressing or alienates the main character, but what they may not realize is how much it affects the real audience, the people who have gone through a scarring experience just like Melinda. While Anderson’s use of craft is different from that of Stewart’s, both authors have the same goal - to help the reader understand the true meaning of the story.

As both books progress, the message of the story becomes more and more apparent to the reader. Fiona and Melinda are both living in the same world, with a similar kind of community. Both of them have been impacted by that one party, which changes everything for them. They each deal with the aftermath in different ways, but eventually pull through. After Melinda gets raped at the party, all of her friends shun her, and she never tried to get them back. Slowly, near the end of the book, Anderson hints at how Melinda might be able to pull through, using the bathroom wall as a step towards Melinda’s return to society. Another factor of Melinda’s life that Anderson points out is her friendship with David Petrakis. Some believe Petrakis is there as a proof for Melinda that not everyone in her school is terrible. While this may be true, it is also seen that really all Melinda needed was for one person to understand her, for her to recognize another person knows her silence. “He says a million things without saying a word. I make a note to study David Petrakis. I have never heard a more eloquent silence.” Anderson uses the word eloquent in this sentence to illustrate how Melinda feels like he has every good quality that she doesn’t have, but could. Taken as a whole, Anderson uses Petrakis to give Melinda something to work for, something that in the end, may drive her to speak the truth. Fiona, on the other hand, has her secret known by everyone in her school and community, which should have made it harder for her. But one thing Stewart hints at is her ever powerful friendship with Lacey and Rick. Even though many of her friends desert her, she eventually realizes that it’s her who can fight back. And on the first day of school, when her friends stay with her and protect her, it’s only then that Fiona realizes how important they always were. It is also in the end that she realizes she should have trusted Ryan more, instead of firmly believing only what she thought was right.

All the main characters in these two books go through a powerful, life-changing experience, and while they lose hope at first, they work around the problem and find a way through. Sylvie, Laiping, Fiona, and Melinda are all examples of how a person can live with a scar, no matter how bad it is. Each of them deals with their losses in a different way, but a key role in their lives that helps them through is trust. Trusting their peers, trusting their family, it helps them create a new skin to pull on and walk around in. But their stories also warn the audience of the people not to trust and not to forgive so easily. The main message a reader can take away from both books is even when you feel left out, pushed away, or hidden by society, trusting your instincts, the people closest to you, and remaining open to other people are the key ways to getting back on your feet. Now the question to ask yourself as a reader is, is society really the place that puts the worst into a person’s life, or is it how that person reacts to an obstacle in their way?