The Motifs In Melinda's Tree By Laurie Halse-Anderson

Melinda is a Freshman in high school, and she doesn’t speak throughout the whole entire year, because of an issue she faced during the summer. Laurie Halse-Anderson tells a lot in her book Speak about how many important issues young people face every day. In this essay, there will be three motifs about the themes Laurie Anderson put in her book, Melinda’s tree, the weather, and Melinda’s lips. Melinda faced a lot of issues, but there were somethings that gave off how she was feeling. The first was her tree project.

One of Laurie Halse-Anderson’s motifs that connect with the theme is Melinda’s tree. For example, Melinda’s introduction with the tree was in the first day of Art class. “I plunge my hand into the bottom of the globe and fish out my paper. ‘Tree.’ Tree?” (page 12) This proves that when Melinda was first introduced to her tree, she didn’t want to see it. She didn’t want to see that she was like the tree. She was first introduced at the

Melinda 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.’” (page 45) Siobhan mentioned that Melinda’s lips looked like disease. How does Melinda feel about that? Her self image was just ruined like that, her self confidence dropped a hundred miles underneath the Earth. To prove that, this piece of evidence says it all, “The salt in my tears feels good when it stings my lips. I wash my face in the sink until there is nothing left, no eyes, no nose, no mouth. A slick nothing.” (page 45) This proves how much wrongs can kill someone. How much Melinda’s self esteem was dropped was drastic. She probably thinks she’s a monster, a hideous creature. Just by saying a most simple of words can hit someone like stabbing a knife through their chest. And it makes them not see themselves as the beautiful person they really