The Power Of Art In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

“Speak” is book about a young girl who loses her voice after being raped and slowly gains it back over time. Laurie Halse Anderson uses an internal voice throughout the book to show the havoc that is attacking Melinda’s mind. This adds to the theme of being outcast and isolated because the she has no one to really talk to.

Speak is a cleaver and an ironic title for a story in which the main character chooses not to speak. The story is written in first-person narration from the point of view of protagonist, Melinda Sordino. Speak is written like an interior monologue in the mind of an introverted teenage girl, like excerpts from her personal diary during her miserable freshman year of high school. Instead of blending in and finding her way through high school. She withdraws and secludes herself from the other students. She calls herself an "outcast." Melinda is so desperate to hide from the world; she turns an old janitor's closet at the high school into her safe haven. She cuts classes to hide in her closet. How lonely could this teenage girl be? All

Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a story written in the first person about a young girl named Melinda Sordino. The title of the book, Speak, is ironically based on the fact that Melinda chooses not to speak. The book is written in the form of a monologue in the mind of Melinda, a teenage introvert. This story depicts the story of a very miserable freshman year of high school. Although there are several people in her high school, Melinda secludes herself from them all. There are several people in her school that used to be her friend in middle school, but not anymore. Not after what she did over the summer. What she did was call the cops on an end of summer party on of her friends was throwing. Although

In Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak, trees symbolize Melinda’s growth throughout her life to stay sane and pass the horrific time of her life. Depression is her first phase, when she starts to paint the trees that were hit by lightning. It is also shown by her not talking to many people. She starts to realize that she cannot be perfect when she imagines a beautiful oak tree but really cannot carve it properly. Her third phase comes when the trees outside her house has a few sick branches and she decides to let go of the present Melinda who is not letting her grow and nurture the old Melinda, the one before the party, the fun and outgoing one. The last phase, and tree was the one she drew for

Have you ever drawn a picture to express something, or just drawn it for fun? Well Melinda uses her drawings to express her feelings and get away from the world. I think the in the story “SPEAK,” by Laurie Halse Anderson, She uses Melinda's artwork and the tree to express the fact that Melinda got raped and afterwards, when she looked up... and saw... a tree.

What comes to your mind when you think of a tree? Trees appear a lot in Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. They are one of the most frequent symbols in the novel. Symbolism is giving certain symbols deeper meanings to portray something in the text. In Speak, Melinda’s paintings of trees are symbols, as well as the tree in her front yard. Anderson uses trees to show Melinda’s different phases and her growth.

A great leader acquires many strong qualities but the most important quality a leader can possess is being able to inspire other. In the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character, Melinda, is having some trouble with her art project. A girl named Ivy decided to take action and help Melinda out with her project. “You’re better than you think you are,” Ivy says. She opens to an empty page in the sketchbook. “I don’t know why you keep using a linoleum block. If I were you, I’d just let it out, draw. Here---try a tree. We sit there trading pencils,” (Anderson 146). Ivy wants to show that there are other ways to go about things. She understood that Melinda was stuck and wanted to inspire her by starting her off with drawing and helping along the way.

In the book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, Andy Evans impacted Melinda Sordino in a very negative way. Melinda was raped by Andy Evans at a party weeks before she started high school as a freshman. Melinda, who was scared and unsure, called the cops. But she was too horrified to say anything and ends up going home before they arrived. But the police do come and arrest people at the party.

William F. Halsey explains, "All problems become smaller if you don't dodge them but confront them." This shows that facing a difficulty face to face will help it go away. In Speak, mute Melinda was unable to overcome her struggle since she attempted to “dodge” the truth. However, when Melinda finally spoke out about what happened to her, she immediately felt better about the struggle she was dealing with. The main theme of the novel and ancillary texts is overcoming obstacles. This theme is expressed through the conflict, symbolism, and foreshadowing throughout the texts. Laurie Halse Anderson’s use of literary elements in Speak, as well as the devices in the article, “The Art of Resilience” and the poem “If” help the common theme of overcoming obstacles throughout a time of growth and change evolve throughout the story.

Melinda is assigned tree as her year-long project for her art class, but the way she draws the tree is “So dark you could barely see the tree at all” (Anderson 31). Melinda is showing herself as a dead burnt old oak tree. She is hiding herself from the world. Even though she feels terrible, she steps up and tries to draw tree. But every time she tries to draw a tree, she only draws a dull plain tree that everyone knows how to draw. [She has] “no idea to make it come alive”(55). Melinda is not only hurt, but she is dead inside. No one is helping her heal herself, and she is left all alone. Even though Melinda feels horrible, she realizes that there are some ways to recover herself from the bad

In the story, Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, Anderson uses images and descriptions in the chapter PRUNING, to portray Melinda’s life. First, as Melinda watches the tree in her yard cut down, she says that, “He’ll only leave a stump (Anderson 30).” Melinda represents the tree as herself. If part of the tree is cut down, it cannot grow back. Melinda is afraid that she may never recover from what happened to her at the party. She may be a stump with nothing left. Next, Melinda’s dad assures her that, “By cutting off the damage, you make it possible for the tree to grow again (5).” Cutting off the “dead” branches symbolizes that Melinda wants to have people with and around her to help her to “cut off” her bad memories and experiences. She does

In the book“Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character is “Melinda Sordino who is a freshmen in highschool that is having tough times fitting in after she called the cops on a party she was in and now almost everyone hates her, but then along the way she finds some friends who help her out. The message of this story is that no matter what you do you can always come through and defeat your fears of high school.

In the book Speak Laurie Halse Anderson is saying that in our daily lives friends are great to have, but you can’t depend on them always being there for you. Such as when Laurie Halse Anderson wrote about Melinda and her new friend Heather. Heather was fun at first but then backed stabbed Melinda later. Laurie Anderson wrote about Melinda’s friends leaving her after Melinda called the cops at the party because she was raped. Her friends didn’t bother asking why she did, they just stopped talking to her. Laurie Halse Anderson wrote about Melinda hiding and not opening up to anyone. Now this was where I was saying that Laurie Anderson was writing about it’s good to have a friends around. If Melinda had just one friend to talk to she wouldn’t

The protagonist in the novel, Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson is high schooler Melinda Sordino. In the summer before her freshman year, Melinda is abused by an older student. This traumatizing experience turns her friends away from her and drives her into depression. Melinda enters high school at Merryweather High and struggles to find friends, perform well in classes, and even speak. She becomes the school’s freak. Melinda becomes an extremely powerful character as she muddles through depression for nearly a year before finding a way to cope with her mental illness.

The tree in Speak symbolizes Melinda’s emotional state when at first she finds no meaning in drawing the tree then she finds the courage to speak up about her rape experience. As Melinda is starting her artistic path, Mr. Freeman says his opinion on her artwork and she develops an understanding that her art work could compare to her life.