In the book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda is a freshman who struggles with her first year of highschool. She called the police during a summer party and now the entire school hates her. Melinda is filled with fear, anxiety, and depression and is alone with no support. Melinda still has a fun and sarcastic mindset, making her compare herself to several objects or animals seen throughout the book. Some examples of these objects she used to compare, or symbolize with herself, are of the symbolism is the tree she uses in art, the animals she compares herself to, and the cleanup of her yard.
In art, Melinda has to pick an object from the globe Mr. Freeman and has to turn it into a piece of art. The object she chose was a tree and throughout the story, her tree changes along with her. In the beginning of the book, she has troubles coping with the object she got and is really depressed and quiet, completely unlike herself. By the end though, she is returning to herself and ends up with an A plus on the assignment. “I can see it in my head; a strong old oak tree with a wide …show more content…
She attends her classes and tries to reconnect with people. On the first Saturday in May, Melinda decides to go outside and starts to clean up her front yard. “I put on old jeans and unearth a rake from the back of the garage. I start on the leaves suffocating the bushes” (165-166). This is the first thing that she has had motivation to do since the rape before school. Before this change, she constantly thought about being hidden away or asleep in her room away from people. Her cleaning up her yard can also represent her cleaning out the bad thoughts blocking out the good thoughts. This also relates to when her dad pruned the tree in their yard of its dead branches so it could grow to be stronger and better, like what she did by removing the bad thoughts and
In art, Melinda has to pick an object from the globe Mr. Freeman and has to turn it into a piece of art. The object she chose was a tree and throughout the story, her tree changes along with her. In the beginning of the book, she has troubles coping with the object she got and is really depressed and quiet, completely unlike herself. By the end though, she is returning to herself and ends up with an A plus on the assignment. “I can see it in my head; a strong old oak tree with a wide …show more content…
She attends her classes and tries to reconnect with people. On the first Saturday in May, Melinda decides to go outside and starts to clean up her front yard. “I put on old jeans and unearth a rake from the back of the garage. I start on the leaves suffocating the bushes” (165-166). This is the first thing that she has had motivation to do since the rape before school. Before this change, she constantly thought about being hidden away or asleep in her room away from people. Her cleaning up her yard can also represent her cleaning out the bad thoughts blocking out the good thoughts. This also relates to when her dad pruned the tree in their yard of its dead branches so it could grow to be stronger and better, like what she did by removing the bad thoughts and