Growth And Growth In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

How Symbolism is Expressed by Authors Symbolism helps the author display growth and development that they want the reader to understand and acknowledge. In Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda expresses symbolism and growth over the duration of the book that is expressed through writing from the author. One of the ways symbolism is expressed is through trees In the novel, Speak, the use of trees as a symbol reveals the growth of the main character, Melinda. At the beginning of the novel, Melinda’s character growth is nonexistent. Early on in the novel, Melinda shows no progress, “My last tree looked like it died from a fungal infection” (Anderson 92). Melinda thinks that her drawings are bad and have no value. Melinda feels like the tree because Melinda

This improvement can be seen during the third marking in art class, “I sketched a cubist tree with hundreds of skinny rectangles for branches. They look like lockers, boxes, glass shards, lips with triangle brown leaves. I dropped the sketch on Mr. Freeman's desk. “Now you're getting somewhere”(Anderson 119). Melinda is showing improvement and is finding a new approach to combat her trauma and is getting good feedback from Mr. Freeman. At the end of the novel, Melinda was almost a different person from the one the reader saw at the beginning of the story. On the last day of school, Melinda describes her tree, “My tree is definitely breathing; little shallow breaths like it just showed up through the ground this morning. This one is not perfectly symmetrical. The bark is rough, he said. I try to make it look as if initials had been carved into it a long time ago. One of the lower branches is sick, that better drop off soon so it doesn't kill the whole thing. Roots knob out of the ground and the crown reaches for the sun, tall and healthy. The new growth is the best part” (Anderson 196). This excerpt from the story represents a lot of