A symbol is a representation of something. A symbol is often a material or object signifying something abstract. In the novel speaks by Laurie Hassle Anderson, the use of symbolism helps the reader better understand the inner working of the main character. Laurie uses mirrors, blood, a Maya Angelo poster, seeds, plants, and trees to help the reader better understand Melinda.
Mirrors. At the begging of the novel speak Melinda hates mirrors. Melinda thinks that her reflection looks ugly in her bedroom mirror, and she covers up the mirror in her closet with a Maya Angelo poster. Throughout the novel Melinda whenever she sees her reflection, notices her flaws and is disgusted by herself. This hatred of her own image symbloizes deeper self-loothing melidna believes that it is her adult that andy Evans raped her. She finally comes to an understatement that he assaults faults Melinda has always hated herself for what she perceives as her weakness and stupidity \. Toward the end of the book. Melinda uses a mirror as a weapon. She shattered the one in her janitor's closet to try to threaten andy Evans as he tries to rape her again. She has at least, regained control over her image
…show more content…
Blood comes up throughout the novel. Blood represents both life and death. Blood also has a connection with adulthood. Blood represents the pain that she feels but cannot speak, her blood is the proof that she has been injured. This association with bleeding is upsetting when Melinda's mother reacts dismissively and costly when she sees that her daughter has been hurting herself. Melinda has essentially shown evidence of her hurting inside which her mother ignored. lastly, in the moment when Melinda draws “one drop of blood” from the neck of andy Evans ( her rapist). Then Melinda returned the
Additionally, Melinda uses negative ways to cope by doing self-harm and isolating herself. Melinda also uses positive mechanisms to cope with her trauma by expressing herself through art and standing up for herself. Melinda states, "For a solid week, ever since the pep rally, I’ve been painting watercolors of trees that have been hit by lightning” (Anderson 30). This demonstrates how Melinda uses the arts to creatively express her emotions. She is also showing Mr. Freeman how she feels, which is a positive gesture.
When she eventually breaks the mirror, she uses it against the boy, “Shards of glass slip down the wall and into the sink... I reach in and wrap my fingers around a triangle of glass. I hold it to Andy Evans’s neck.” (Anderson 195). This scene illustrates how much Melinda has grown.
No running away, or flying, or burying, or hiding. ” It is without a doubt that this is a dynamic character because it clearly identifies Melinda’s development. Rather than being a static character, she is able to overcome her anxiety, PTSD, and fear in order to accept the truth of what happened to her. Throughout the story, she is presented as an extremely silent person.
To start, mirrors remind Melinda of her flaws. She sees her flaws that lead her to feel weak and stupid about what had happened. She disgusted herself because she felt it was her fault Andy Evans had raped her. In the novel, Melinda states, “I get out of bed and take down the mirror.
Did you know that only 310 out of every 1,000 sexual assaults are reported? Melinda was one of the 690 people that didn’t report her sexual assault. Speak was about this girl named Melinda and she had something happen to her right before school started and she didn’t tell anyone. Then as the school year progressed she wasn’t making any friends and even the only friend she had unfriended her. THen at the end she finally told someone.
Also, the closet her “safe place” she always used to hide what happened at the party from everyone else becomes a dangerous place. “It”, also known as Andy Evans the boy who rapes her at the party breaks into the closet and tries to sexually assault her again. Melinda realizes she can't let this happen again and therefore fights back with everything she has. She realizes that her closet is not safe anymore and that she can't hide from her trauma. And that she can't hide from this problem, and she needs to stand up and speak to the problem.
Melinda cutting herself is a sign of her finding a way to cope with her mental health issues. Dealing with the constant nonsense at school, at home, and in the past leaves Melinda with little breathing space. This is not the only instance of Melinda injuring herself, on many occasions she has coped with the mental suffrage through self harm. She bites her lips until she tastes the blood. “I bite my lip.
Hurting herself, like her nail and lip biting, is another way for her to express physically what she is emotionally experiencing. People around Melinda ignore her physical and emotional signs of despair. Instead of viewing Melinda’s scratches as a cry or help, Melinda’s mother tells her to stop because she does not have the time for such conduct. In addition to Melinda’s attempts at self-harm, Melinda experiences difficulty sleeping. For example, she expresses her inability to sleep when she says, “I just want to sleep.
At the end of the story she finally found her voice and was able to stand up for herself. In the beginning, Melinda didn't talk to anyone, barely even to her parents. She says, “I have tried so hard to forget every second of that stupid party and here I am in the middle of a hostile crowd that hates me for what I had to do. I can't tell them what really happened” (Anderson, 28).
After Melinda admits to herself that she was raped, Melinda starts to realize that
For instance, she tells rachel about what happened at the party. Once Melinda learns that Andy and Rachel are attending prom together, she needed to tell Rachel about what Andy did. “I was stupid and drunk and I didn’t know what was happening and then he hurt-I scribbled that out-raped me” (183). Melinda finally telling someone about what happened is a perfect example of her recovery. At the beginning of the novel, she could not even talk to her friends.
It isn’t perfect and that makes it just right.” As seen in the text, Melinda finally realizes that she can/has grown. Its not her fault she was raped, it doesn't define her, but it can help shape her. She states that she isn't perfect, similar to her homely sketch, but that's OK; nobody is perfect. Melinda also learns how to reassure herself and how to cope with her trauma, saying “It wasn’t my fault.
To try to forget and move on from being raped, she needed to avoid looking at herself and seeing the person she has become. Ever since Melinda was raped, she has been frustrated with herself and has not been able to face her reflection. This shows that she could not face her feelings. Melinda’s coping strategy was to avoid others and avoid herself. The mirror is a symbol for her emotional struggles and that she cannot deal with them.
Melinda, in a lot of ways, starts out like that it the book. She becomes a shell of herself from before the party happened and because no one else was there, she is lonely and doesn't have anybody to go to and to make matters even worse, she’s covered by the reputation that she has formed. In the book, Laurie Halse Anderson uses symbolism to convey exactly what Melinda can't say. In the beginning of the book, Melinda starts high school carrying her emotional wounds with her after something happens mysterious to her at a party during the summer.
She feels ashamed and blames herself for not being a good enough wife for Tom, just as Melinda feels guilty as though the rape was her fault, even if it really wasn’t. It is later revealed that in reality, it was actually Tom who had done all those atrocious things. He would lie to Rachel, blaming her for all the things he had done, just to make her feel guilty, weak, and worthless. Just how Andy had made Melinda feel after he raped her. With this connection, I can better understand Melinda’s character through Rachel’s in The Girl on the Train, which I read and enjoyed before I read