101 pages • 3 hours read
Sharon M. DraperOut of My Mind
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
Perseverance in the Face of Prejudice
Having cerebral palsy impacts every aspect of Melody’s life. The struggles she works to overcome, and the realities she comes to accept, reflect the significant themes of perseverance in the face of her disability and prejudice from her peers. In particular, these themes manifest in Melody’s desire to be “normal,” to communicate, to develop friendships, and to make the Whiz Kids quiz team at school.
Because of her cerebral palsy, Melody is regularly exposed to people’s ignorance, insults, assumptions, and prejudices. Many people incorrectly think that her physical limitations also extend to her brain. This discrimination does not come from just Melody’s classmates and peers at school; many adults, including teachers, come to inappropriate and unsupported conclusions about what Melody can and cannot do. For example, Claire is astonished when Melody is able to “speak” through her Medi-Talker and says she didn’t realize Melody had anything going on inside her head. Likewise, the psychologist Dr. Hugely tells Melody’s mother that she’s brain damaged because she can’t physically complete the tasks he asks of her, even though she knows the answers, and one of Melody’s teachers continues to teach her the ABCs even though she’s far too advanced for the lesson. Melody has to score perfectly on two tests before Mr. Dimming takes her intellectual abilities seriously. Through this evidence, Draper points out that people with physical disabilities must work twice as hard as normally-abled children to prove themselves as capable to both peers and adults, even if they are exceptionally intelligent like Melody.
Though Melody initially considers giving up after Mr. Dimming says that he needs to make the test harder if she’s able to pass it, Mrs. V and Catherine are determined to help her persevere. They encourage her to prove her critics wrong by studying doubly hard for the next Whiz Kids test. The day of the test, Melody faces Mr. Dimming’s doubts again and ignores them, showing that she’s willing to persevere through criticisms. This particular incident is fruitful, as Mr. Dimming concedes that Melody is very intelligent, and he underestimated her.
Melody’s perseverance doesn’t always yield desirable results, especially with her peers. Though she helps her team win the first Whiz Kids quiz, her peers are prejudicial and still see her as “other,” seeking to exclude her. She garners attention from the public, but her teammates are jealous of her spotlight. Always, Melody is apart from them, whether eating at the restaurant, celebrating with a pizza party, or being left behind at the airport. Her teammates express that they don’t want her to “slow them down,” even though she’s clearly the brightest student on the team. Still, Melody faces these obstacles and continues to try to be a part of the group.
Through the prejudice that Melody faces, Draper encourages the reader to challenge their own prejudices about disabled people. She gives the reader Melody’s first-person perspective so there’s no way to misconstrue Melody the way that the characters in the book do. We know that Melody is intelligent, witty, and insightful, and Draper seems to be asking the reader to consider Melody when meeting someone who is differently abled or who doesn’t communicate conventionally.
Self-Acceptance Versus Inclusion
Melody’s school’s push for inclusion at first seems to be what Melody needs. Her intelligence has been constantly underestimated in the classes she has attended before, and this new program might be the avenue through which she’s able challenge and expand her knowledge. At the same time that Melody is interested in challenging herself intellectually, she dislikes who she is physically. She often looks at the other children—with their ability to move and communicate however they wish—and envies them. Inclusion, to her, is about being a part of her able-bodied peer group, a dream that constantly evades her.
At the beginning of the novel, Melody sees herself as trapped in her body. Much like the goldfish in the bowl, her world is small, lonely, and she’s unable to communicate. Using the fish’s predicament as a simile, Melody alludes to contemplating suicide because she can’t take the confinement anymore. Later, she seeks to free herself by gaining a little more autonomy with an electric wheelchair and a Medi-Talker. Still, Melody cannot feed herself and relies on others for many tasks. Melody believes that this means there’s something wrong with her, and her greatest fear after Penny’s accident is that she’ll be disabled. Conversely, Mrs. V tells Melody that she’s perfect the way she is. Mrs. V argues that everyone has their disabilities, and she much prefers Melody’s physical maladies to the social-emotional “disabilities” of Melody’s cruel teammates.
By the end of the novel, Melody leaves behind her need for inclusion and accepts herself for who she is, just as Mrs. V does. She discards the trophy, which represents the inclusion she’s been hoping for with the quiz team, and literally turns her back on her peers. The next scene shows her writing her autobiography, which suggests that she’s ready to create her own story independent from the acceptance of other children.
The Importance of Words and Communication
Melody’s inability to communicate “normally” highlights how important speaking and expressing one’s self through words is to human beings. As predominately social creatures, talking is a primary mode by which people can connect and understand each other. The importance of verbal communication is underscored by Melody’s frustrations: she knows what she wants to say but cannot speak the words aloud.
Draper uses the comparison of a snowflake to show Melody’s complicated relationship with words. While Melody knows the importance of words and admires them, like snowflakes, they melt on her hands “untouched,” highlighting that she herself is never able to speak them. Her inability to speak appears throughout the novel in anecdotal ways, as when her father doesn’t realize she wants a Big Mac and her mother misunderstands her interest in the toy blocks, and at pivotal plot points, like when she can’t tell her mother that Penny is behind the car.
Melody’s capacity to communicate grows throughout the novel. First, she only has a small conversation board with few words available. She finds this limiting, as she wants to use words the way those around her do—to convey the nuances of language and use humor, wit, and emotion. Mrs. V creates a new board with more words and phrases, then Melody eventually gets her Medi-Talk Computer.
Melody’s ability to “speak” with other people dramatically changes when she receives “Elvira.” Although the computer allows Melody to express herself in ways she could not before, it is not a perfect solution to the problem. It takes time for Melody to learn to operate the computer, and even then, not everything that she types necessarily reads correctly. The computer also has some lag time, preventing Melody from taking part in the quick back-and-forth amongst her teammates while preparing for the Whiz Kids tournament. While the computer doesn’t totally bridge the gap between Melody and her peers, it does allow her to turn her back on her cruel teammates with her final withering remark about the cheap, broken trophy: “You deserve it” (292).
Related Titles
By Sharon M. Draper
