Ws Merwin Unchopping A Tree

When we visited it the next morning, we found the tree shattered in a singular manner. It was not splintered by the shock, but entirely reduced to thin ribbons of wood. I never beheld anything so utterly destroyed.”

On page 54 Melinda is doodling a pine tree and goes on to talk about her struggles to carve a tree in art class. She tells the audience, “I’ve been trying to carve a linoleum block in art class. The problem with the block is that there is no way to correct mistakes. Every mistake I make is frozen in the picture.” This relates to her situation. If she makes a mistake on her tree there is no way to correct it. Just like she made the “mistake” of calling the police at the party, she is not able to go back and correct it. If only she could her ex-friends would still be friends with her and the people at school wouldn’t hate her. Just like the tree, she is not perfect. Her mistake is “frozen in the picture” the picture that is her life.

The diction in the excerpt is an essential component to the dramatization of the plot’s central incident. Jewett uses rich language to intensify the simple nature of the main character Sylvia’s journey up a “great pine-tree.” For example, in describing the tree, the narrator uses personification as he mentions the “huge tree asleep yet in the paling moonlight.” The use of personification harkens back to those universal moments in childhood in which everything alive had human feelings, and creates an emotional attachment between the reader and the tree. Jewett also uses other figurative language, like similes, to relate the grandeur of the tree to the audience. She writes, “It [the tree] was like a great main-mast to the voyaging earth…” In comparing the tree to the great mast of a ship, the author invokes feelings of awe at its size.

Trees are important not only physically but also spiritually and for many this fact is lost. Physically trees provide humans with beauty and a healthy ecosystem. Spiritually trees provide humans a connection to nature. Their importance has been lost in our modern times as humans further separate themselves from nature. While forgotten by many, their actions still resonate. The two modern poems “The Tree Agreement” by Elise Paschen and “Living Tree” by Robert Morgan trumpet the value trees hold in comparable ways. In the poem “The Tree Agreement” the speaker argues for the benefits of the Siberian Elm against a disagreeing neighbor. By structuring the poem in this manner, the poet highlights how people are blind to the services trees provide while simultaneously highlighting said services. The tree is portrayed almost as a friend or ally to the speaker. The speaker describes not only to the significance of the tree to humans like the neighbor and the speaker but also to the other living creatures surrounding them. The poem “Living Tree” focuses on the actions performed by trees in cemeteries. This poem follows a more spiritual route when compared to Paschen’s poem. This poem describes the process those who have been buried go through and the role trees play in this process. The trees in this poem are portrayed as lightning rods for the chemicals and spirits of the dead. This relationship is portrayed positively, as the trees are a monument to the passing of life. These poems

As corpses permeate the graveyard, the ability sustain life itself comes into question; Olds warps the significance of the tree to argue that life is no longer sustainable. Due to the lack of enough wood for coffins, the disposal of corpses exemplify desperation and require inhumane treatment. The sheer number of corpses necessitates that many are “Bound with rope like the tree's ball of roots / When it waits to be planted”(7-8). Literally converting poisonous carbon dioxide into oxygen, a tree preserves life on earth. Ironically, as the

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.

At first, her father decides to have it removed, but later, he realizes that the tree can be salvaged. He tells Melinda, “Those branches were long dead from disease. All plants are like that. By cutting off the damage, you make it possible for the tree will be the strongest on the block” (187). The phrase “long dead from disease” symbolizes Melinda’s isolation and silence because of the rape. Additionally, the words “you make it possible for the tree to grow again” implies that she can change and heal in the future. Moreover, “strongest on the block” suggests that Melinda can become more confident in herself, or even more powerful than everyone around her. This example portrays Melinda’s decline and her possible

He also uses the visual element of “Shape and Mass.” The trees are 3D representation of actual trees. They are over 40 foot tall and very heavy; therefore they consume a large amount of volume and mass. The trees appear to be constructed from geometric shapes but also try to follow the form of nature in a more organic way.

Melinda is very attached to her trees, she is very much alike them in the way that she grows with confidence and blooms into a wonderful student. At the beginning of the year when Melinda is first assigned to draw trees, she has some difficulty, " I take out a page of notebook paper and a pen and doodle a tree, my second grade version, crumple it into a ball and take out another sheet. How hard can it be to put a tree on a piece of paper?"(32) because this is Melinda's first tree she has trouble she does not quite understand the meaning and the be behind

The towering stack of chopped wood sat sturdily. The hard work that the person spent on stacking the pile paid off for a gorgeous work of art. The two trees express unity; without the two inosculated trees the pile would have no

I did cut it with my hatchet." "Run to my arms, you dearest boy," cried his father in transports, "run to my arms; glad am I, George, that you killed my tree; for you have paid me for it a thousand fold. Such an act of heroism in my son is more worth than a thousand trees, though blossomed with silver, and their fruits of purest

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

Since Melinda’s art project was on a tree, she thought that it would be easy. She constantly tried making the perfect tree but it would not look right. “Your imagination is paralyzed” her art teacher said (Anderson 118). Her teacher was trying to tell her that she was too focused on perfection and forgetting the true task at hand: trying to convey a message through her art. In the end, Melinda accepted her perfectly imperfect tree, along with the unfortunate experience that had happened the previous summer. “I look at my homely sketch. It doesn’t need anything. It isn’t perfect and that makes it just right”(Anderson 198). Melinda also said, “IT happened. There is no avoiding it, no forgetting….It wasn’t my fault. And I’m not going to let it kill me. I can grow” (Anderson 198). She had learned the true meaning of letting go and not focusing on what is perfect, and rather accept it and

In the beginning of the book, Melinda is assigned to draw a tree in art class. First Melinda goes to art class and gets a simple tree to draw. “Tree. Tree? It’s too easy” (p.12).