Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson Symbolism

"Speak," a young-adult novel by Laurie Halse Anderson is tightly packed with symbolism. "Speak" discusses the narrative of Melinda Sordino, a high school student who stops speaking after being raped by a classmate at a party. Anderson employs symbols to depict Melinda's struggle and ultimate emotional growth as she attempts to move past the tragedy. Significant symbols in the narrative, such as lips, trees, mirrors, and closets, provide depth and meaning to the story. I personally feel that the symbolism of trees represents her mindset and growth the most, they also seem to represent a brain. This essay will be speaking on the symbol of trees and those that she draws which actually tell us of her progression throughout the story. For example

Later, a scene in which men chop away a dead branch from a tree in order to save the remainder of the tree represents the danger Melinda faces in allowing her misery to take over every area of her life. We learn at the beginning of the book that she feels terrible and is scared of everything and everyone. She prefers to keep to herself, yet she is unconcerned about herself, her academics, or anything else she does. A fantastic illustration of this inside the narrative comes on page 51, in the final paragraph, when Melinda feels nervous and lacks confidence. She says “I know my head isn’t screwed on straight. I want to leave, transfer, and warp myself to another galaxy. I want to confess everything, hand over the guilt and mistake, and anger to someone else. There is a beast in my gut, I can hear it scraping away at the inside of my ribs. Even if I dump the memory, it will stay with me, staining me” which are all very sad and rough emotions for her to be going

This can be interpreted as her self-improvement and attempt to participate in school activities. In the middle of the story, she is not around anyone and realizes that only she can mend her mistakes and improve herself. She also realizes that having friends isn't as important or vital as everyone makes it out to be and that it's sometimes better to be alone if you know what you want to do and the path you want to pursue. We witness her actually acting on this as she begins to improve her grades, even if just slightly. She tries talking to more adults and being more open, as well as feeling better and not caring what others say until they are presented to her. On page 113, the final paragraph before the section “Clash of the Titans” shows that Melinda has tried avoiding school by sneaking into a hospital and acting as a patient. However she notices that it’s wrong and that being in school is the better decision, “I put the gown back. There is nothing wrong with me. These are really sick people sick that you can see. I head for the elevator. The bus is on its