Speak Scene Analysis

Author's Note: This is a scene analysis for when Melinda is hiding from the Heathers in the bathroom. I'm trying to analyze the purpose of this passage, along with its meaning and tone. I would like feedback on my ability to do so. Thanks!

"I hide in the bathroom until I know Heather's bus has left. The salt in my tears feels good when it stings my lips. I wash my face in the sink until there is nothing left of it, no eyes, no nose, no mouth. A slick nothing. -Speak, page 45.

All teenagers have a feeling of not knowing who they are, or what they want to be when they are in high school. No one knows where to go, where they fit in. That's exactly how Melinda feels when in the bathroom of her school. The tone she is conveying is a tone of loss and a tone of wonder. She doesn't know where she should be in life, and she keeps wondering that. It is a tone of loss, since this character is at a loss with the world.The meaning of this scene is that she doesn't know where to go in life, so she's trying to drift into nothing. Thats's what the washing her face in the sink is giving off. Laurie Halse Anderson wrote this passage in the novel with the purpose of showing Melinda's feeling of loss, her feeling of not knowing what to do. Her feeling of not knowing who she should be.