Above the Influence

            In the book Speak by Laurie Anderson many themes run throughout this novel, but one in specific is loss of innocence from the main character. Melinda is a girl who is very closed off from others and doesn’t really speak at all. She really starts to lose respect for others and herself throughout the novel and this does start to take a toll on her life.

One scene from the novel is when Melinda is at a senior party during the summer. Melinda probably thought that this was a regular party but she had no idea what she was getting herself into with her friend Rachel.  Once there Melinda starts drinking beer. At first she says that it tasted worse than cough medicine, but one at a time she pours the alcohol down her throat and this leads to Melinda getting drunk, which is her first encounter with growing up to fast. Another event that tells about Melinda’s loss of innocence is found on page 135. After she was all liquored up, Andy Evans, an admired senior, comes up and starts flirting with her. From there Andy takes things a bit too far and rapes Melinda before she can even say anything or cry for help. These main events are what destroy Melinda and show her loss of innocence to readers.

This theme can also be found in the book The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. One scene that describes this is when Ponyboy fights with Darry. Pony and his friend Johnny were sleeping in a vacant lot that night and Ponyboy fought with Darry. He hits him with all his might and Ponyboy decides to run back to the lot. This is when loss of innocence starts to occur in this novel. Afterwards the Socs show up at the lot and they nearly kill Ponyboy. With this happening Johnny’s reaction was to stand up and he ended up going too far. This resulted in Johnny killing Bob. Hinton definitely showed loss of innocence between the two characters Ponyboy and Johnny. 

            Most definitely both books show loss of innocence between each character. Melinda should not have done what she did at that wild party and Ponyboy and Johnny should not have made poor decisions to fight.  Both novels have main characters lose who they are and lose their own virtue inside them. Overall readers can certainly learn from this and apply it to their life because loss of innocence did play a big part in the book Speak and The Outsiders.