Summary Of Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

he novel Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, focuses on the story of a high school freshman, Melinda Sordino, who is struggling to overcome a sexual assault that happened during a party over the summer. Melinda then called the cops, subsequently shutting down the party. Her actions result in her friends abandoning her and the rest of the school viewing her negatively, as no one else knows the real reason as to why she called the police. Due to the trauma she experienced, she stops speaking and becomes maladjusted and deeply depressed. She has no one to talk to about what happened at the party, causing her to lose all motivation for her classes, except for art. She has been assigned the subject of a tree to explore for the whole year, and the images she struggles to create are representative of the confusion and darkness within her. Anderson equates Melinda to a tree throughout the novel, using the symbol to document Melinda’s journey to

She has yet to learn to grow, like the seed she found in biology class. Melinda is given an apple to dissect. When she cuts it up to the core, she finds a seed that is trying to grow into a tree, reaching up into the air, ¨An apple tree growing from an apple seed growing in an apple¨ (67). The new growth of the seed is what Melinda must do if she wants to move on and be happy. She must tear the problem down, reveal the center, and find a new growth within to nurture. Meanwhile, in art class, Melinda still does not know how to draw the tree she sees in her mind, the “strong old oak tree with a wide scarred trunk and thousands of leaves reaching to the sun¨ (78). Using symbolism, Anderson displays the person Melinda could be, the image of the strong tree, while also keeping Melinda the person she is now, struggling and ruining linoleum blocks with failed carvings of the simple trees she cannot get