Essay On Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson
Samantha Dabros
Mr. Chomin
9th grade Language Arts
17 January 2023
Speak
The book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is about a girl named Melinda who goes to Merryweather High School. The theme of this book is finding your voice because Melinda was assaulted before she even went to high school. And the way it was written, it was meant to send that message. All books are meant to have a message but this seems to want that message to get across to people. Melinda didn’t speak to anyone before she kind of remembers what had happened to her in the summer.
This book is great. You can imagine what goes on in the book. For example “I plunge my hand into the bottom of the globe and fish out my paper. "Tree." Tree? It's too easy. I learned how to draw a tree in second grade. I reach in for another piece of paper. Mr. Freeman shakes his head. "Ah-ah-ah," he says. "You just chose your destiny, you can't change that." (Anderson 12) Mr. Freeman being dramatic but in a funny way in this scene.
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One strength is the symbolism in the book. There are so many symbols that just keep popping up it’s very easy to memorize some of them. A tree pops up a lot. Tree in is book represents life or new beginning. In Melinda’s case she gets a tree in art class and she thinks it’s an easy topic so she tries to put it back but Mr. Freeman, the art teacher, says no you have chosen your fate. “Tree? It's too easy. I learned how to draw a tree in second grade. I reach in for another piece of paper. Mr. Freeman shakes his head. "Ah-ah-ah," he says. "You just chose your destiny, you can't change that.” We see in the book that When she’s alone it’s difficult for her to, not draw a tree but one that looks good. She draws dead-looking trees. But when she’s with Ivy and David (a classmate and lad partner) it looks alive. And it also represents her finally speaking to her parents and other people like
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