What Is A Tree In Laurie Halse Anderson's Book Called Speak

The book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, is about a teenage girl who stops talking after she gets raped. The title of the book is ironically based on the fact that Melinda, the protagonist, chooses not to speak again after the incident. During the end of the summer party, Melinda calls the cops on her friends causing her to avoid interactions with society. Her peers and friends begin to hate her, yet nobody once asks her why she did what she did. The reasoning for her action is that she was being raped. The tragic events changed once happy and enthusiastic girl into a depressed and introverted girl while being a dreadful student at a school. The main character Melinda gradually begins to portray signs of recovery and strength through her

Through the ups and downs of life everyone makes courageous decisions to improve people’s life experiences and those that surround us. The book Speak written by Laurie Halse Anderson talks about the ups and downs of high school while coexisting our personal lives. The main character Melinda gets assaulted at a party and has to work up the courage to talk about that night. It is important to be courageous in life to overcome obstacles and positively reach milestones. Many courageous people have accomplished huge milestones. Melinda may not have accomplished anything huge but Melinda did talk to Rachel about what happened that night, tells Andy no, and opens up to Mr.Freemen about everything. There was many more important moments but these were Melinda's most accomplished milestones.

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 book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is about a girl who was raped at a party and her journey through isolation,depression, and coming to terms with what happened. This book has many delicate,fragile, and important themes, but the most important is the obvious isolation throughout the book. Melinda’s isolation is obvious because of how school society treats her, Heather not being an actual friend, and her parents obvious neglect of their own daughter.

In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character, Melinda Sordino experiences a disturbing event over the summer of her eighth grade year. She was sexually assaulted by Andy Evans at a party. Melinda nearly loses her mind totally as she began shutting down on all fronts. However, she slowly recovered from her traumatizing experience, and eventually learned how to live with what happened.

Laurie Halse Anderson creates a deep and meaningful book with the use of unique structure of the “chapters” and an important theme. Speak is a very relatable and realistic book. Many people around us have secrets that they are too scared to share. Melinda is a teenager that develops in character immensely. She goes from hiding a secret of herself to speaking the truth and finally revealing her secret. Rape is a serious situation and many people have experienced, but we do not even know it as the victims are possibly too afraid to speak up. Readers can relate to this book even if they aren’t the one with the secret. They could be the friend who did not know, or just a high school student who witnessed it all happen. Speak presents an important

Symbolism is a commonly used literary device that uses symbols to represent other ideas which is seen very often in Speak, a novel by Laurie Halse Anderson. The chapters Little Writing On the Wall and Chat Room specifically have a lot of symbolism. These chapters are mainly focused on Ivy and Melinda in the girls bathroom and the writing on the bathroom walls. Also, they show Melinda finally starting to speak up about what’s happened to her. In Little Writing On the Wall Ivy accidentally gets marker all over Melinda’s shirt and they go to the bathroom to try and fix it, within that time Melinda sees the writing on the walls, anonymous conversations scrawled across the room.

Speak Essay “ A sure cure for seasickness is to sit under a tree” (Spike milligan). Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson is about a girl named Melinda that got raped at a party, ever since then she lost all her friends and struggled talking to people in high school. The tree in the book Speak is a motif in the story that symbolizes the growth of Melinda. First, she is assigned to draw a tree and thought it was too easy, Then, she tried stepping it up by adding color to the tree, finally, she built confidence in herself and agreed that she can do a better on drawing a tree.

The character Melinda of Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel Speak develop the theme of change throughout the story through her actions, words, and thoughts. First, in the beginning of the novel, Melinda was more isolated than the others because she chose not to communicate with anybody about her conflict and refused to talk to anybody, not even her parents. “One girl nods her head and says way to go. I hope you are okay” (Anderson 197). Melinda never communicated with anybody, verbally. In the end, when she screamed when she was being abused, her conflict was resolved. Because she chose to communicate, she also became quite popular throughout her school. Then, Melinda always thought about how terrible school is. “With hours left in the school year,

“It is my nightmare and I can’t wake up. It sees me. It smiles, it winks.” This quote is said in Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel Speak by the main character Melinda Sordino. Speak is a story about Melinda in her first year of high school and her traumatizing summer before. Andersons novel shows a young girl that struggles with acceptance of peers and overcoming the fear of speaking out.

“Speak”, written by Laura Halse Anderson, was a novel that contained many lessons of great significance. The significance of the title itself explains how the protagonist, Melinda, battled with inner demons about if she should talk about her being raped over the summer, or if she should just keep it to herself. Silence plays a huge role in this novel. Melinda remained silent to others for majority of the book, but as a reader, I was exposed to her thoughts. Anderson (1999) writes, “The whole point of not talking about it, of silencing the memory, is to make it go away” (p. 80). This sentence alone explains Melinda’s reasoning as to why she kept quiet and the role silence played throughout the novel. She believed that if she did not talk about it, the memory would somehow be removed. I believe that Melinda also kept quiet because she was afraid no one would listen and they would not believe her. Truth played the role of relief in the novel. When Melinda finally found the

The book “Speak” was written by Laurie Halse Anderson. In the following report I will summarize the contents of the book from beginning to end.

“The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said” (Drucker). The theme that Drucker is trying to give out is communication just like in Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel Speak. Throughout the entire novel, this theme is shown mostly in the characters of Mr.Freeman and David Petrakis.

The theme for the book Speak is not to be afraid to say something when being attack. In the book Speak . Melinda had a secret that she hasn’t told anyone yet not even her parents. Melinda was raped by this boy named Andy Evan who she met at her Ex- Best Friend Rachel’s party.Melinda kept this burden all freshman year until the towards the end. Many people in real life go through the same things just like Melinda.