In Speak Laurie Halse Anderson uses trees to represent Melinda's emotional growth throughout the novel. At this point of the story she has just been raped and is feeling depressed and alone and it makes her feel “diseased”. “My last tree looks like it died from some fungal infection”(92). At the start of the story she’s in a bad place because she feels that she can't tell anybody about what happened because they might not have a positive output on the things she has been through. When she starts school, everybody hates her for what she did at the party and it makes her feel unwanted. During the middle of the books she feels stuck in a way to where she cant express herself without getting called out, but when she starts talking to ivy it's
In the beginning of the book, the motif of trees is used to support what Melinda’s life is like after what happened at the party. When Melinda is choosing her art project, she is quite confused on how simple and basic her topic is. Melinda says “He stops at my table. I plunge my
Liam Arnold Mr. Bramanti English 9 CP 30 May 2023 Speak Essay In Speak, a realistic fiction story written by Laurie Halse Anderson, trees are a recurring symbol and are of great importance to the progression of the book and Melinda. Trees are used and described in the book as complex, difficult, and complicated. There are many similarities between Melinda’s social life just like the tree's complexion. Melinda’s life progresses throughout the story along with the tree progressing through the seasons. Throughout the story a tree is used as a symbol because of its complex nature and relatability to Melinda’s life.
Speak is written in first person, and we see right through the eyes of Melinda Sordino as if we were her character. The story is in present tense, and the plot is constructed based on the marking periods of the school year and the events are organized to show the reader both Melinda’s story and her growth as a person. On the other hand, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is written from a third person omniscient point of view, and is loosely constructed in the events that take place. The book flows through Francie’s life, even including minor parts of it. The two books are alike in the way that we see inside the minds of each character.
That's what the nurse told me, who was standing outside. They rolled him off the truck and the white men drove away”(Stockett 178). Imagine being in a dark, isolated room, afraid of what will happen next. Everything feels cold dreary, and full of despair. When Aibileen talks about Treelore in the book, she exhibits the sadness and pain for Aibileen.
Laurie Halse Anderson uses the tree as a motif to trace Melinda’s growth from someone who is afraid and depressed to someone who is strong and more stable. In the beginning of the story, we can tell that Melinda is very depressed despite her internal sense of humor. Since the party that she called
She at first thinks the task of drawing a tree is easy, but she soon realizes it is harder than it seems. Melinda can easily picture a tree in her mind, but she can not draw it. This relates to Melinda before and after she was raped by Andy Evans. Before the rape, Melinda is represented by the tree when she says, “I can see it in my head: a strong old oak tree with a wide scarred trunk and thousands of leaves reaching to the sun”(78). Melinda was completely fine before the rape occurred, and she was happy with herself and her surroundings.
In the beginning, Melinda’s tree seemed as if it had been struck by lightning because it was so burnt, hurt, and destroyed. She started to make the tree less and less dead which led her to become more
This is shown when she starts to scream at God and say, “Shut up you! Get out of my life!! I never want to see you again!” (Satrapi 70). She is pushing God out of her life and its changing her perspective on life as she goes on through the book.
In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda Sordino struggles through high school, all while dealing with the aftermath of a rape. Throughout the story, she creates artwork of trees for art class. These trees symbolize Melinda's growth throughout the novel as she deals with being raped, depression, anxiety, drama, her parents, her grades, and her rapist continuously teasing and tormenting her. On Page 12 of Speak, Melinda is in art class and is told to choose a slip from a broken globe.
Melinda compares herself to the tree she’s created. The tree she created represents her depression as each branch impersonates her loneliness, weakness, and being overlooked . She used her art class to express how she felt instead of telling others, which helped Mr. Freeman realize Melinda is going through something. “We communicate with notes on the kitchen counter.” (Home.
Their teacher, Mr. Freeman assigns the class a year-long project to pick a random object and turn it into a real piece of art. Melinda’s object was a tree. As the year goes on her art develops and her tree does as well. And by the end of the year when she has begun to fully heal and move past what happened to her, her tree is finished, and a beautiful piece of art. Melinda’s tree is brought up throughout the book as a symbol of how she has
Art is way of expression. People can use actions and art or express themselves in ways other than speaking. In the book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, symbolism holds a big significance. The trees mentioned throughout the book symbolize Melinda’s changing “seasons” (her “growing” as a person). People, like trees, go through phases, they freeze in the winter, becoming nothing but lonely limbs without leaves covered with white slush.
Although she is innocent in the beginning of the novel, she becomes a mature and understanding child throughout the course of the novel triggered by the trial of Tom Robinson. In the novel To
By using an excessive amount of comas, she is able to capture the rush. An example of this is when Sylvia takes her “daring step across into the old pine-tree” (35) and finds out the task at hand is harder than believed. The run on sentence describing the difference of the oak tree to the pine tree allows the reader to infer the danger present and allows Sylvia to be portrayed even more as a heroine. Jewett utilizes narrative pace is again when youthful Sylvia is almost to the summit, describing how she is becoming part of the tree by successfully defeating its obstacle like “all the hawks, and bats, and moths” (50) and the animals, who for centuries have been known to use this tree.
They all hear, The speaking of the Tree.” In the late 20th century and early 21st centuries there was a lot of intolerance and racism that led people to believe certain people were inferior to others. This line signifies that all people of all different backgrounds hear