In Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel, Speak, Anderson tells the story of Melinda Sordino, a freshman who’s starting off her new year with no friends as her former friends turned on her. Turns out, Melinda called cops on a party, thus, Melinda has become anti-social and depressed because she’s aggravated many people. Through the use of the tree motif, Anderson reveals Melinda is a depressed tree that’s trying hard to grow.
At beginning of the novel, the tree motif reveals Melinda is in a dark place as she’s showing a sign of depression and sadness. When Melinda is painting watercolor trees in art class she says “I’ve been painting watercolors of trees that have been hit by lighting. I try to paint them so they are nearly dead, but not totally.” (Anderson 30-31) Here the tree motif symbolizes Melinda’s severe depression because Melinda is trying to paint trees that are almost dead and the reader comes to understand that something horrible has happened to Melinda that’s causing her to feel dead on the inside.
When we first encounter Melinda, she’s trying to carve a tree she has in her head onto a linoleum block. In art class, Melinda is carving away at a linoleum block for art project. However, Melinda is failing and she thinks to
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Melinda wakes to the tree in her front yard cutting down. While Melinda watches the tree, her dad explains why the tree is being cut down to a little boy by talking about the arborist and how “He’s not chopping it down. He’s saving it. Those branches were long dead from disease. All the plants are like that. By cutting off the damage, you make it possible for the tree to grown again.” (187) Here Anderson suggests, Melinda is like the tree because she’s damaged, and by cutting of the damage, the tree will grow to become strong once again. This is an equivalent to Melinda as once she chooses to move on, she will become
Melinda is going through the same procedure as the tree. If Melinda put her past behind her and move on, it will give her a chance to grow. "Let me tell you about it." This quote made me happy because it was coming from a girl who stayed to herself, who wouldn't tell anybody anything, even though she had experienced something tragic. Deep down inside, her not to say nothing was hurting her even
In contrast with the tree; the walls family were always beaten down due to poverty, spun in different directions by the wind; as in the millions of miles they move about through the country but they also have strong roots as well. Rose; Jeanette’s mother shows a deep interest and fascination over the tree. She loves to study and make portraits about it. In Rose’s perspective the tree is her view about her family; deep underneath their dysfunctional roots of trial and hardships they face; there is a strong bond of love and compassion that they have together as a
He notes that the tree seems smaller. By seeing how the tree had changed, Gene changed,
Therapeutic art is used to assist people in understanding who they truly are and how they have grown from their past and any traumatizing experiences they may have experienced previously. Author, Laurie Halse Anderson explains the struggle of being the high school outcast through character Melinda Sordino. Anderson uses Melinda 's evolving tree artwork to symbolize past calamities in Melinda 's life, as well as how Melinda is growing as a character throughout her freshman year of high school. While Melinda is struggling most, she struggles with finishing her trees the way that she wants them to look.
“It had loomed in my memory as a huge lone spike dominating the riverbank, forbidding as an artillery piece, high as the beanstalk” (13). When Gene referred to the tree as an “artillery piece” it is assumed that this tree may have caused destruction. The foreshadowing continues as the story moves on. Gene and Finny seem as though they are best friends, but it is starting to go downhill.
Speak Have you ever gone through a trauma? “ Recovery doesn't erase the trauma as if it had never happened, it just makes it easier to deal with” ( American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress). The novel Speak is about a teenage girl going through her tough high school years. She started the school year with no friends and with a heavy secret weighing over her. One might think that her problems are just teenage normal ones, but what they don't know is that she was suffering from a sexual assault, rape.
“Mom and Dad smiled at each other and laughed. It was a sound that Tree hadn’t heard from them in the longest time” (132). This shows how Tree wasn’t sure his parents were ever going to get along again, but they end up having a good time. This is an example of how family matters most and hope is always around. This situation gave Tree strength to preserve.
But after the rape, Melinda is not happy with anything in her life and she is always stressed out. This is represented when she states, “But when I try to carve it, it looks like a dead tree, toothpicks, a child’s drawing. I can’t bring it to life. I’d love to give it up” (78). Melinda has changed dramatically, and this is represented by the tree she sees versus the tree she tries to make.
This passage from “A white Heron”, by Sarah Orne Jewett, details a short yet epic journey of a young girl, and it is done in an entertaining way. Jewett immediately familiarizes us with our protagonist, Sylvia, in the first paragraph, and our antagonist: the tree. However, this is a bit more creative, as the tree stands not only as an opponent, but as a surmountable object that can strengthen and inspire Sylvia as she climbs it. This “old pine” is described as massive, to the point where it, “towered above them all and made a landmark for sea and shore miles and miles away.” (Line 8).
The beginning of this essay is “ Twenty- five years ago my gnawing curioity to kow more about plants in their native homes got out of hand.. ”(Lester Rowntree, Collecting Myself). This first sentence of the essay directly give out the infomation for the whole essay: a people who moved herself into a forest, stay clear away for the moderrn life, and the purpose of this choice is for “study of plants”. But when read throught the whole essay, audience can not only realize what a live in a forest like, but also can get in touch with the deep thought for the relationship between human and
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.
Near the end of the novel she observes, “In the years she had been tying scraps to the branches, the tree had died and the fruit turned bitter. The other apple trees were hale and healthy, but this one, the tree of her remembrances, were as black and twisted as the bombed-out town behind it.” (Hannah 368) The apple tree represents the outcomes of war. It portrays the author’s perspective that lives wither and lose life due to such violence.
This emphasises the enormity of the task Ofelia is about to embark upon and also her vulnerability as the tree’s dominating presence fills the frame. The fig tree itself is symbolic in its representation. Firstly, the entrance of the tree resembles that of a female’s ovaries, with its curved branches replicating the fallopian tubes. Moreover, the tree’s sickened state mirrors Ofelia’s pregnant mother’s own fragile condition.
“Schoolteacher’s nephew represents a dismissal by whites of the dehumanizing qualities of slavery”. When Sethe is raped, schoolteacher observed how her body is exploited. The scars on Sethe’s back are so many that they resemble the trunk of a tree with its branches. Sethe bear scars on her back because she was whipped due to her try of escape. Amy Denver, a white girl that helped Sethe when she was running away from Sweet Home, calls the tree a chokecherry tree.
Dana Gioia’s poem, “Planting a Sequoia” is grievous yet beautiful, sombre story of a man planting a sequoia tree in the commemoration of his perished son. Sequoia trees have always been a symbol of wellness and safety due to their natural ability to withstand decay, the sturdy tree shows its significance to the speaker throughout the poem as a way to encapsulate and continue the short life of his infant. Gioia utilizes the elements of imagery and diction to portray an elegiac tone for the tragic death, yet also a sense of hope for the future of the tree. The poet also uses the theme of life through the unification of man and nature to show the speaker 's emotional state and eventual hopes for the newly planted tree. Lastly, the tree itself becomes a symbol for the deceased son as planting the Sequoia is a way to cope with the loss, showing the juxtaposition between life and death.