Laurie Anderson A Tree Quotes

In the book The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge, Faith Sunderly is a fourteen year old girl, whose family abruptly moves to a remote island; she is determined to discover the reason for moving by using her knowledge and dedication. This impacts the book’s theme, do not let society define you, because in her age and society, women were not to be brave, clever, or skilled. After what seems like a tragic accident, Faith’s father died, but Faith believes he was murdered, and secretly reads her father’s journal in order to discover more. She reads of a valuable tree that gives a truth if it is fed lies. She finds it, and uses her cleverness and quick wit to sneak around and spread lies in order to feed the tree and find out

In the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the author does something out of place or that the character wouldn’t do and it brings the book to a whole other level. The main character is Melinda and she has a hard time in highschool. She doesn’t have any friends and most of her teachers don’t like her. Also her and her parents don’t really talk to each other. They don’t have a connection with her like some parents have with their kids. So just from this you can kind of tell that Melinda of has no hope inside of her.

Throughout the novel, trees are symbolic of growth for Melinda. While Melinda struggles not only with being an outcast but having trouble with her assigned subject, she seeks help from Ivy, a new friend. Melinda claims “it was a mistake to sign up for art.” Ivy disagrees, and the girls “sit there trading pencils. [Melinda] draws a trunk, Ivy adds a branch. Melinda “starts to erase [her part]” but Ivy says “It is fine the way it is. It just needs some leaves, Layer the leaves and make them slightly different sizes and it will look great. [Melinda] has a great start. Melinda then says “She is right” (146). By working on her tree drawing together with Ivy, the tree is what strengthens and grows the girls’ bond as friends. Melinda’s confidence

The trees in the book are the most conspicuous symbols. They appear in virtually every chapter of the book and they symbolise life and progress for Melinda. At the beginning, Melinda sets out to draw trees for a project that will take a year. She initially struggles to draw the trees that would realistically thrive but instead gets frustrated thinking she would not be able to make the trees flourish. As such, trees represent Melinda’s misery. The cutting of a dead branch from a tree in a bid to save the tree is symbolic in the sense that the dead branch represents Melinda’s pain and despair which threatens to thwart the entire project unless she overcomes her misery. The flourishing trees later on symbolise Melinda’s recovering

Specifically, in this story, there are two types of trees mentioned, a Chinaberry tree and a pear tree. The Chinaberry tree resembles the dark side of nature, as nature continues to act as a mystery. When falling upon Mr. Larkin and his car, the Chinaberry tree is described as “tilting, dark and slow, like a cloud” (Welty 109). When watching this happen, Mrs. Larkin says to herself “You can’t be hurt,” as she feels that her love is strong enough to save her husband, but unfortunately, life does not work that way (Welty 109). By trying to protect her husband with these words, shows the theme of death and grief in the story. The problem Mrs. Larkin has throughout the story is being unable to understand why death happens and cannot seem to accept the loss of her husband. It’s important to take from this that humans cannot make sense of nature or sometimes of the events that occur throughout their lives, but as individuals, you can control your own actions, concluding, that there is no rational explanation for the tragedy in Mrs. Larkin’s life. Nature simply provides a point of departure for clarifying Welty’s concerns (Carson

Melinda’s effort’s to create the right tree represents her hardships because it symbolizes her relationships with her parents, and all the mistakes that she makes in her life. First, Melinda’s tree represents the relationship that she has with her parents. Melinda is trying so hard to create the right tree, when she says, “It looks so flat, a cheap, cruddy drawing. I have no idea how to make it come alive.” (Anderson 55) Melinda can’t get her tree to be like a tree, almost like how Melinda’s can’t get her family to be like a family. Melinda wants so badly for her tree to be perfect, just as me as she does her family. Next, Melinda’s tree represents all of the mistakes that she makes in her life. Melinda is trying to carve her tree when she

Throughout the book, trees largely represent the emotional encumbrance of a character. An obvious example of this is the Chokecherry tree which Sethe carries on her back. Sethe receives the “tree” after being whipped, and is on the run from Sweet Home. She does not even know that she had the tree until she meets Amy, who points out to her, “Your back got a whole tree on it. In bloom.” (93) Sethe’s Chokecherry tree represents the burdens of her time at Sweet Home, and that her back still hurts and inconveniences her show that she still carries that emotional burden as well. The second instance of this symbol appears when Sethe and Paul D fight for the last time, in the passage, “’You got two feet, Sethe, not four,’ he said, and right then a forest sprang up between them; trackless and quiet.” (194) The forest that separates Sethe and Paul D is a product of their personal emotional burdens, and represents the personal effects of such encumbrance. Trees represent the weight that Sethe and Paul D each carry on their shoulders as a result of their time at Sweet

The boys left her with the tree on her back; a physical scar, a metaphorical reminder of her sorrows. The trunk of the tree functions as Sethe’s tormented soul, the tree on her back acts as a tie between her and slavery. At first the tree appears to represent nothing more than scars, however when analysed the tree illustrates the need for characters to cope with the past in order to progress into the future. The scar on her back is indelible, as are the memories of the burned and hanged human beings; while it isn’t quite as drastic as the memories, it is certainly more visible. The word “Chokecherry” maybe a minor play of words by Morrison suggesting suffocation and asphyxiation. The chokecherry tree is a compound metaphor. The understanding of the metaphor also corresponds to Morrison’s notion of gaining access to the past. The metaphor in particular “seeks out obscurity, that which is not obvious”, to claim a communal right. Although the tree is a physical inscription of slavery on Sethe’s back, as an uncanny physical omnipresence but Amy tries to create a beautiful image of it to

The tree represents her innocence and childhood because once it gets cut down, her carefree and giddy-girl days are behind her. It is no coincidence that after this traumatic event in her life, Juli finds out that Bryce has been throwing away the chicken eggs she has so kindly and freely supplied his family with. When she catches him red-handed, Bryce confesses to Juli that he has been secretly throwing them away because he and his family think her yard is such a mess. Sure, Juli gets upset about this, upset at Bryce and his family’s cruelness. But after talking to her parents about the yard, she decides to fix it up.

First off, Phoenix Jackson is an “old Negro woman,” who faces the obstacles of life. She has troubles on her path through town and life. She begins her path through the pinewoods. The path is like a microcosm of a person’s whole life. Sometimes things can be easy, and sometimes things can be hard. Phoenix runs into obstacles which are harder than other. Life has many elements; some many be dangerous, surprising, beautiful, and confusing. Phoenix Jackson faces some problems with her memory. “Up through pines,” she said at length. “Now down through the oaks.”(Welty “A Worn Path”). Through the story Welty uses the trees as a symbol of wisdom, strength, and endurance. The trees help to tie the idea of the cycle of life and

It is evident that Melinda has an abundant amount of hardships that she’s struggling to cope with like her rape and communicating with her parents. One of the main problems she deals with is her struggle to manage her rape, which she so delicately shows through her tree project. Her rape story provides most of the inspiration for all her trees. When Melinda thinks to herself, “When I try to carve it, it looks like a dead tree… I can’t bring it to life” (Anderson78). She tells the struggles of her sexual assault through the tree project because just as the tree is dead, she feels dead. She relates to the tree in the sense that she wants to tell her story but cannot. She can’t bring the tree or herself to life. The other main problem is her relationship

Interpreting the tree, which is typically associated with ego development, may suggest similar themes that were seen in his house drawing, specifically, active fantasizing to avoid reality and the

Melinda’s tree art in the fall is just like Melinda, bare and lost. She doesn't know what to do with herself, she doesn't know what to do with the tree. She has no words and no ideas. “I stay awake. I take out a page of notebook paper and a pen and doodle a tree, my second grade version. Hopeless.” Melinda is at a

“But the boy stayed away for a long time....and the tree was sad.” The tree’s happiness and bliss is entirely depended on the boy. Although many are sad when they are not with someone they love, the tree can’t find her happiness without the boy and is portrayed to be lonely all throughout the book without the boy. Another one of her weakness also starts to show as the story goes on. “And so the boy climbed up the tree and gathered her apples and carried them away. And the tree was happy.” The tree cannot say reject the boy on his offers. She is willing to give everything she has for the boy. “And so the boy cut down her trunk and made a boat and sailed away. And the tree was happy... but not really.” Although by the end of the story the tree is merely an old stump, the boy still asks the tree for a quiet place to sit and rest.

However, the trees unconditional love for the boy does not change and even when he returns after so long the tree, “[shakes] with joy” (41). The atmosphere helps to prove this as the tone shifts from one of joy and happiness to pity and finally to pure sadness. Readers cannot help but to feel bad for this mother-like figure who is taken advantage of but still stays firm for her love. The boy is thus seen as a villain-like character, who allows his greed to take everything from the tree until finally she is left as only a shell of her old self. However even as “just an old stump” (96), the tree “[straightens] herself up as much as she [can]” (101-102) and is happy, as she offers something to the one she loves.