Melinda's Symbolism In Speak
Throughout the novel Speak, Melinda’s mouth becomes a symbol. As she works her way through her trauma, she develops a compulsion to bite her lips when faced with a difficult or stressful situation. It’s not uncommon for victims of her sort to take on some form of self destructive habit like this— generally, for either the conscious or unconscious purpose of punishing oneself for whatever event took place. It’s a guilt mechanism. This is, however, only one half of the symbol. Melinda also stops talking entirely when she’s at the lowest point in her recovery. This is a recognized syndrome, known as selective mutism. To her, the amount of effort required to string her thoughts into coherent words for somebody else to hear outweighs the value
Pessimistic Views Of Teachers In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson
736 Words | 3 PagesFurthermore, Melinda had admitted that she could “[feel] the wind blow and hear the mockingbird whistling on the way back to her nest. But when [she tries] to carve it, it looks like a dead tree, toothpicks, a child’s drawing. [She cannot] bring it to life” (78). She wistfully imagines confessing her distress, but she remains reluctant and retreats from transitioning into speaking again. There are many moments within the novel where Anderson uses symbolism to illustrate Melinda's desire to refurbish her life as this one, but it is hard for Melinda to do so without the choice of acknowledging what happened.
The Motifs In Melinda's Tree By Laurie Halse-Anderson
729 Words | 3 PagesMelinda was hurt with words too, and her lips were the main target. For instance, Melinda’s lips were mentioned by one of the Marthas, Siobhan. “Siobhan: ‘She’s creepy. What’s wrong with her lips? It looks like she’s got a disease or something.’”
Compare And Contrast Esperanza And The House On Mango Street
1125 Words | 5 PagesThis causes her to be unable to speak as normal and express herself only through self physical acts of hurting herself. However, through her pain, she begins to grow from a victim to a survivor and understands that the only way to go against evil is to speak out against it. Melinda in Speak is a high school freshman who is raped by Andy Evans who is a senior in high school. Due to him raping her she loses her ability to speak normally and say what she feels and how she feels. Melinda gains her confidence to speak in public freely again by the end of the story.
Brave Orchid: The Thematic Power Of Silence
668 Words | 3 PagesThe first words of Maxine Kingston’s memoir: “You must not tell anyone” (1) indicates the thematic power of silence that permeates Kingston’s life. When she was young, her mother (Brave Orchid) cut the frenum of her tongue. Her mother claimed to do it because she did not want her daughter to be “tongue tied” (164), but her efforts did not seem to help Kingston who has a “terrible time talking” (165). At first, she did not recognize her silence as a problem. When she realized that she had to talk in school, “the silence became a misery” (166).
The Symbolism Of Melinda's Transformation In Speak By Laurie Anderson
277 Words | 2 PagesSpeak, the story of Melinda Sordino, the girl without a voice. In speak the main protagonist, Melinda, has to go through high school with almost everyone in her school hating her because of a misunderstanding, she called the police on a summer party because she was sexually assaulted but never had the courage to say anything. Throughout the book the writer, Laurie Anderson uses trees to symbolize changes in Melinda’s life like (insert thing here), how Melinda needs to remove the “dead branches” from her life so she can move on and grow from her experiences, and how Melinda was finally able to “cut the dead branches” from her life and learn to speak up for herself. A good example of Melinda’s transformation is shown in this next quote. “He’s
Use Of Figurative Language In Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak
644 Words | 3 Pages" Speak also states on page 161 " I am a deer in headlights of a tractor, is he going to hurt me again? He couldn't in school... why am I so afraid. " These examples from the text show all the problems Melinda had, for instance what Andy did to her,
Examples Of Character Development In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson
755 Words | 4 PagesAt 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).
Symbolism In Laurie Halse Anderson's 'Speak'
805 Words | 4 PagesAfter Melinda admits to herself that she was raped, Melinda starts to realize that
Betrayal And Loneliness In Melinda's Speak
446 Words | 2 PagesThe main character, Melinda has to deal with the feeling of betrayal and loneliness as all the people who she grew up with, shared unforgettable memories with and the people she thought would never leave her side now backstabbing her and making her feel like she isn’t worthy to live. Melinda “responds” to this problem by ignoring everyone and becoming isolated so that no one would approach her and ever hurt her ever again. I would advice Melinda to try and go up to her friends and let them know what really happened. As they say “in the end we only regret the chances we didn’t take”. It’s better for Melinda to at least try and talk to her friends, because they may have been true friends all along there just may have been a misunderstanding.
Finding Identity In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson
308 Words | 2 PagesOne will eventually come across the day where they are able to figure out who they truly are as a person. A discovery like this will lead to new chapters of life and start new beginnings. Although finding one 's identity can be difficult to understand and accept, it is crucial in life to discover oneself. In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, a teenage girl, who had to overcome and deal with an awful tragedy, takes readers on the long journey she walked before finding meaning and value in who she is as a person.
Figurative Language In Laurie Hale Anderson's Book Speak
120 Words | 1 PagesOne example of figurative language in Laurie Hale Anderson’s book “Speak” is when Melinda decides to rid her garden of all weeds, and does some spring cleaning after it finally stops raining during May. Around the same time, Melinda is realizing that she wants to make some new changes in her life and in this figurative language example, Melinda’s life is her garden. She decides first to rake the leaves “suffocating the bushes” ; Melinda is ridding the demons from herself on the first layer of her skin. She says that she has to “fight the bushes (her problems)” and the bushes don’t like getting cleaned out but it is something one has to do if one makes
Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson Analysis
734 Words | 3 PagesThe novel Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is about a girl named Melinda, who shows signs of depression throughout the story. She has no friends and is hated by people she doesn’t even know. This is because she called the cops at a party, where she was raped. Anderson includes literary elements to show how Melinda is depressed. Throughout the novel, she uses many different literary elements to show Melinda’s conflict.
Theme Of Isolation In Laurie Anderson's Speak
736 Words | 3 PagesIsolation is when one is set apart from others and is virtually alone. In Laurie Anderson’s Speak, the protagonist, Melinda, isolates herself and is further isolated from others. Isolation can be seen through three symbols: lips, mirrors and a closet. Melinda thinks no one cares about what she has to say, resulting in silence. After the incident in the summer, Melinda cannot bare to look at herself.
Essay On Symbolism In The Book Speak
1197 Words | 5 PagesMelinda, 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.
Speak Journal Response To Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson
1218 Words | 5 PagesShe 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
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