Depression is something that everyone has felt. However severe or minor, that feeling of hopelessness and uselessness is a never-ending void that will continuously pull someone in until there is nothing left. Such is the feeling that Melinda Sordino suffers in the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Her depression stems from being raped at a party before freshman year and becomes a social outcast because no one knows what happened. During her first year at high school, she slowly learns how to express herself through her art, symbolized by a tree. Laurie Halse Anderson uses the tree as a motif to trace Melinda’s growth from someone who is afraid and depressed to someone who is strong and more stable.
In the beginning of the story, we can tell that Melinda is very depressed despite her internal sense of humor. Since the party that she called
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She skips and is acting even more out of the ordinary compared to what her parents expect her to do. Her life is spiraling, and she doesn’t know how to stop. When in art class again, Melinda feels that “My tree is frozen” (Anderson, 103). In this stage of the story, Melinda feels stuck. She is not getting anywhere and struggles to open up to anyone, even her “friend” Heather. So, she acts out, by skipping school, cutting classes, and not attempting in her classes, and even cutting herself. It is all a plea for help, trying to feel something else than the fear that came with thinking about what happened. However, Melinda finds some salvation in her art. When experimenting with drawing cubism in art, she “[sketches] a cubist tree with hundreds of skinny rectangles for branches” (Anderson, 119). She can now see that her life is spiraling out of her control, branching out into directions she does not like, taking shapes that she does not recognize. But she is frozen still and cannot even reach out for
For example, the art piece she made with turkey bones, a Barbie doll head, culinary utensils, and tape had evinced her emotional distress. Mr. Freeman had seen these sensibilities within Melinda's artwork as well by saying that "[it] has meaning. Pain" (65). Melinda has an idea in her head of what she wants her tree to look like, which also symbolizes herself, "a strong old oak tree with a wide scarred trunk and thousands of leaves reaching to the sun" (78). Melinda can create this tree only if she becomes like this tree as a person by surrendering into acceptance of the atrocious offense committed against her and the scars that came with it.
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson should be mandatory reading for 8th graders due to its take on how trauma can affect the lives of its survivors. Through completed writing, the National Book Award finalist and Golden Kite Award winner, Laurie Anderson captures the thoughts of Melinda Sordino. After she gets raped and has to deal with a misunderstanding that leaves her silent and outcast. This short book of 224 pages is mostly written in short statements. From casual thoughts such as, “I zone out,” to ones with impact like, “Why go to school.”
In Speak Laurie Halse Anderson uses trees to represent Melinda's emotional growth throughout the novel. At this point of the story she has just been raped and is feeling depressed and alone and it makes her feel “diseased”. “My last tree looks like it died from some fungal infection”(92). At the start of the story she’s in a bad place because she feels that she can't tell anybody about what happened because they might not have a positive output on the things she has been through. When she starts school, everybody hates her for what she did at the party and it makes her feel unwanted.
“I start a new linoleum block. My last tree looked like it had died from some fungal infection—not the effect I wanted at all”(Anderson 92). This quote shows how her old tree looked horrible, but she has a chance to make it better. This is the same thing that happens in Melinda’s life. She had things really bad at first, and now has a chance for a rebirth, or a new
The book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, is about an outcast girl named Melinda, someone that slowly got destroyed by a big event that happened at the end of summer party. This event leads to depression, anger, sadness, and most importantly Lack of communication with the art I did for this are things like parents not explaining things to each other or random lines all over the place when people are talking, this relates because when Melinda spoke nobody believed her or even heard her. The theme is that sometimes the lack of communication can lead to bigger problems. Now talking about the art on the paper, the main thing is a tree because I feel like Mr. Freeman saved her, making Melinda see that art is so much more. When he talks about when
In this class , Melinda made a sculpture out of turkey bones, and it showed how she felt . This class was the first time she could express herself, and come closer to accepting what happened.
After reading what she was like the year before,Melinda, who used to be a teenager with friends who cared about her and vice versa, changed drastically. After reading up until the first and second marking period, we can begin to realize what Melinda did to cause her schoolmates to resent her. The summer before the school year began, Melinda was invited to a party which her friends would attend as well. During the party, a traumatic event occurs, which isn’t
Liam Arnold Mr. Bramanti English 9 CP 30 May 2023 Speak Essay In Speak, a realistic fiction story written by Laurie Halse Anderson, trees are a recurring symbol and are of great importance to the progression of the book and Melinda. Trees are used and described in the book as complex, difficult, and complicated. There are many similarities between Melinda’s social life just like the tree's complexion. Melinda’s life progresses throughout the story along with the tree progressing through the seasons. Throughout the story a tree is used as a symbol because of its complex nature and relatability to Melinda’s life.
She at first thinks the task of drawing a tree is easy, but she soon realizes it is harder than it seems. Melinda can easily picture a tree in her mind, but she can not draw it. This relates to Melinda before and after she was raped by Andy Evans. Before the rape, Melinda is represented by the tree when she says, “I can see it in my head: a strong old oak tree with a wide scarred trunk and thousands of leaves reaching to the sun”(78). Melinda was completely fine before the rape occurred, and she was happy with herself and her surroundings.
In the beginning, Melinda’s tree seemed as if it had been struck by lightning because it was so burnt, hurt, and destroyed. She started to make the tree less and less dead which led her to become more
Melinda was raped as a young girl heading into her first year of high school and what happened after that was a catastrophe and would change her life and her peers view of her. Melinda perpetually haunted by her treacherous past memories struggled to stay happy and sane throughout her overwhelming first year of high school. Melinda evolves over time as she longs to be her past happy self again she slowly but surely begins to regain her happiness and self-confidence. With life-changing events coming at Melinda every which way, she experiences the highs and the lows and finds little things in life like her extraordinary passion for art to help her get through the toughest times in her life. This story will make your heart melt with sorrow and compassion, but also bring to you a remarkable story with realistic like events and settings.
The trees represent her art project that Mr.Freeman assigned her and her struggles for her freshman year. The symbol of the trees represent Melinda's artwork, her innocent childhood, and her growth as a
However, Lucy’s belongings were found broken in her room when she returned from school when Toby could play in her room. Around 6 months ago, Lucy showed substantial degree of social withdrawal and decline in academic performance. She often refused to attend school without reason. This essay
She sinks into deep depression, her only outlet being the trees she is creating in art class. Melinda is similar to the trees she creates because many of her experiences parallel a tree’s struggles to grow and survive.
Depression Katie was at school and terrified. She always got bullied at school and the teachers never did anything. Katie just wanted to escape from that place. As soon as school was over she headed home where her parents were fighting and her little sister was crying. She went over to her baby sister and calmed her down.