Justification concepts and applications

Speak by Laurie Anderson

The title of this book embodies the theme of communicating with others, a necessity in order to live in society and a real need for a young person like Melinda, the protagonist, who suffers a good deal because she fails to communicate with other people and who ultimately achieves a transition in her life only when she breaks her silence and tells all. The theme of this story involves a situation too many young women encounter, for Melinda is raped and does not tell anyone about that fact. Too many rape victims do indeed keep the crime a secret, often erring to have people know that they are victims, or being afraid of the rapist, or from some misplaced sense of decorum. Melinda suffers many of the things she might fear if she told by not telling. She is ostracized by her former friends not because she was raped, as she might fear, but because they do not now she was raped and cannot understand her actions and attitudes without that piece of information. When they do finally learn the truth, they stand by her, showing that she was wrong to think they would not when she remained silent for so long.

This novel is a good way to teach the theme of communicating with others and how silence can lead to misunderstandings and lost friends. The story specifically addresses this issue in terms of a rape and so can serve as a lesson on how to avoid that situation and also on the importance of speaking out to be in control and to protect others.

Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher

The theme of this novel is prejudice, depicted here in a small town setting. The main characters face the need to understand self-esteem, its importance, and how to develop it, in this case using adolescents who are facing a time when they are becoming individuals and developing a sense of self that can lead to a productive adulthood or a life of anxiety and doubt, depending on the choices made. The young characters in this novel are members of the Cutter high school swim team, and racial and other differences separate them. Unfortunately, some of these young people seek to express their own sense of worth be denigrating that of others. T.J. is a young man already angry at life for his lot, and he expresses his sense of worth by seeking revenge for the way another member of the swim tam has treated a brain-damaged student. T.J. himself is both black and Japanese and has experienced prejudice himself. He sees the brain-damaged student as another person suffering because of prejudice, though his need for revenge is for himself as much as for this student.

Students can relate to these characters and to the situation, similar to their own roles in life and to behaviors they have seen in their own world. The story shows several characters facing the same sorts of dilemmas and testing different responses, and this can be used to enlist suggestions by the class about the nature of each character and of the way ach reacts to these events.

Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen