Thoughts on: David Latham's "Melinda's Closet"

I really enjoyed reading Latham's article on "Speak." I think that in the back of my mind I made a mental note on the fact that Melinda hid in a closet both at home and at school, but I never went back to think more on it. The idea of being in "the closet" is such a huge marker in today's society and even though this story was written 10 years ago, I'm not sure that Anderson could have written about Melinda's "closet experience" without at least somewhat referencing its connotation in her own mind. The closet (in the literal sense) actually makes sense to me as a place for Melinda to choose to hide. She is still in the school or at home but she is still separated from everyone, and she is the only one who knows about it. For the first time since she was raped, she gets to make the decisions. She gets to decorate the closet, she can invite or exclude both company and objects. It is small and it is in her absolute control, and she needs to feel that way about something in order to begin to heal.

Where I think Latham really excells in creating a convincing argument is in his use of psychology to prove his points. That Melinda exhibits the main features of PTSD is obvious from the text, but Latham is able to use this to link Melinda's recovery process to that of everyone--especially homosexuals, but not exclusively--who are trying to work through the same process to escape from their own closet as well.

At first I was kind of sceptical to the idea of linking rape with homosexuality, but I think Latham makes some very good points. He doesn't diminish Melinda's experience--as I feared he would--but instead, he looks at the psychological and emotional recovery process, and I think that it is a very interesting connection.