Summary And Symbolism In Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak
Have you ever felt like you were trapped in a secret that you couldn’t find the power to share it with anyone? Author, Laurie Halse Anderson wrote her young-adult novel Speak, to show the what its like to face something like that. What’s her secret you might ask? Melinda a ninth grade student about to enter high school was a victim to a sexual assult by one of her peers that past summer at a party. Many teens face this and even though it seems impossible to conquer, Anderson, using humor, and complex symbolism which brings to light on how a real life issue evolved into a new way. Anderson uses a closet(s) to symbolize the life an growth and fading darkness inside Melinda.
First, the most difficult things victims of a sexual assult face is facing that it actually happened; often they think of themselves has someone who is different and put themselves into a box which is( similar to a closet) to provide a home for the memories of what happened. At the start of this novel, the author leads up to
…show more content…
These types of art allow themselves to free their mind and show what there feeling in a way that is non physical. In the text, Melinda does eventually learn to use a kind of art as a coping method which is when she creates a comfortable place for herself in a janitors closet in the school.” “The first thing to go is the mirror. It is screwed to the wall, so I cover it with a poster of Maya Angelou” (50). Since the mirror is screwed to the wall represents that Melinda is unable to escape herself and all the trauma that is inside of her. She is able to cover it up by one of the greatest writer, Maya Angelou symbolizes the potential Melinda has. It is showing what she is able to achieve even though she is unable to realize it instead of who she is. Also it is showing how she eventually will use her art to help her talk to someone about what she went
Literary Devices In Laurie Halse Anderson's Chains
167 Words | 1 PagesLaurie Halse Anderson used literary devices very well in the book Chains. One literary device commonly used is the simile. A simile is an abstract comparison where you say something, is like (as) something else. Laurie Halse Anderson uses a simile creatively to describe a woman “Her chin was narrow and pointed like a shovel.”
Summary Of Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson
695 Words | 3 PagesIt is estimated that 1 in 6 women will be a victim of attempted or completed rape, however, only 16-40% of all rape is reported. In the realistic-fiction novel, Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, 14-year-old Melinda becomes a victim of rape at a summer party and begins to hide from herself to avoid the past. Within the novel Anderson uses the mirror as a motif to show Melinda’s growth from hiding from herself to defending herself. After Melinda’s assault, she calls the police while watching herself in the reflection of a window. “I saw my face in the window over the kitchen sink and no words came out of my mouth” (Anderson 136).
Summary Of Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson
1659 Words | 7 PagesSpeak by Laurie Halse Anderson is a book about a girl named Melinda Sordino. In the beginning of this book the audience meets Melinda as she is the main character and she describes her first day of high school starting with an assembly. Throughout the book you read about her life but she goes back to the past recalling of something that happened at the end of the summer; in a couple of instances she comes across someone that she refers to as “IT”. When reading you don't know who this “IT” is but it is developed over the story by her having flashbacks to that night or dropping a hint of what happened. During a seminar at the beginning of the book Melinda meets someone named Heather who is new and becomes her friend but ultimately leaves her
Summary Of Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson
483 Words | 2 PagesSpeak is a book that deals with a very dark subject. It is something that will need an open-mind and also a lot of empathy to comprehend. Our protagonist Melinda Sordino is a girl who was abandoned by her friend due to something she did at the end of the summer party. When school starts for her freshman year of high school,she an outcast, a nobody, someone who was forgotten, and a mute. The author Laurie Halse Anderson does a very magnificent job of putting the reader almost exactly as through what the protagonist experiences.
Imagery And Symbolism In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson
772 Words | 4 PagesDid 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.
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
Isolation In The Yellow Wallpaper
570 Words | 3 PagesHer descriptions of the room, with the furniture seemingly being nailed to the floor and the windows being “barred” show an underlying understanding that her thoughts and personality is being confined. The irony present in this description, due to her belief that the room used to be a nursery, shows her early denial of her husband’s dominance over her. As the story progresses and she begins to see the woman behind the wallpaper, the reader is exposed to the narrator’s realization that she is the one that is actually being suppressed. The descriptions of the wallpaper, showing how confining it is for the symbolic woman behind it, shows how the narrator is being trapped by those bars in both her marriage and in her mental illness. Thus when she says, “At night in any kind of light… it becomes bars,” the reader is shown how restricted the narrator feels, reflected through the wallpaper.
Symbolism In Laurie Halse Anderson's 'Speak'
805 Words | 4 PagesSymbolism is the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character. In Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson uses literary devices to help the reader better understand Melinda’s personal changes and growth. Trees, lips, and coldness are all symbolically used to represent the changes of Melinda. Throughout the novel, trees play a big part in symbolizing Melinda. Melinda is constantly drawing and relating to trees in the book.
Animal Motifs In Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak
391 Words | 2 PagesWhat role does the animal motif play in the novel? In Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak, the animal motif helps illustrate characters and asserts that people often act in primitive ways. In Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak, the animal motif helps illustrate characters and asserts that people often act in primitive and predatory ways.
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.
Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson Analysis
734 Words | 3 PagesLaurie Halse Anderson uses literary elements such as imagery, symbolism, and conflict, in order to reveal the protagonist’s emotional growth throughout the the novel. In the novel, Anderson uses imagery to show Melinda’s mental state throughout the novel. For example, “I stumble from thorn bush to thornbush-my mother and father who hate each other, Rachel who hates me, a school that gags on me like I’m a hairball. And Heather” (Anderson 125).
Theme Of Isolation In Laurie Anderson's Speak
736 Words | 3 PagesA space where Melinda can physically be alone is what she needed to even more so build a wall between her and others, thus being why the closet is an important aspect and symbol. Isolation is what helped Melinda cope with her pain, this is what makes it the major theme in the novel. Melinda’s lips are cracked, swollen and scabby. Everyone
Stereotypes In Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak
537 Words | 3 PagesOne out of every six women has been sexually assaulted either completed (14.8%) or attempted (2.8%) in her entire lifetime. Imagine of the those women was a 15 year old girl attending high school, who had a lot to offer, but was periodically silenced, while battling a mental illness in a fictional novel called Speak. The novel speak and the articles we read outside of class have a lot in common including sexual assault stereotypes, sexual violence statistics, and mental illness. Next, I will compare the character Melinda with the four articles. During the book speak, the main character Melinda can be described as a “perfect victim”.
Essay On Symbolism In The Book Speak
1197 Words | 5 PagesArt 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.
Descent Into Madness In Charlotte Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper
1480 Words | 6 PagesCharlotte Gilman’s short story, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, (1899) is a text that describes how suppression of women and their confinement in domestic sphere leads to descend into insanity for escape. The story is written as diary entries of the protagonist, who is living with her husband in an old mansion for the summer. The protagonist, who remains unnamed, is suffering from post-partum depression after the birth of her child and is on ‘rest’ cure by her physician husband. In this paper, I will try to prove that ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ acts as a subversive text by portraying the protagonist’s “descent into madness” as a result of the suppression that women faced in Victorian period.
More about Summary And Symbolism In Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak
Literary Devices In Laurie Halse Anderson's Chains
167 Words | 1 PagesSummary Of Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson
695 Words | 3 PagesSummary Of Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson
1659 Words | 7 PagesSummary Of Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson
483 Words | 2 PagesImagery And Symbolism In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson
772 Words | 4 PagesThe Symbolism Of Melinda's Transformation In Speak By Laurie Anderson
277 Words | 2 PagesIsolation In The Yellow Wallpaper
570 Words | 3 PagesSymbolism In Laurie Halse Anderson's 'Speak'
805 Words | 4 PagesAnimal Motifs In Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak
391 Words | 2 PagesFinding Identity In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson
308 Words | 2 PagesSpeak By Laurie Halse Anderson Analysis
734 Words | 3 PagesTheme Of Isolation In Laurie Anderson's Speak
736 Words | 3 PagesStereotypes In Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak
537 Words | 3 PagesEssay On Symbolism In The Book Speak
1197 Words | 5 PagesDescent Into Madness In Charlotte Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper
1480 Words | 6 Pages