ipl-logo

Symbolism In Melinda's Speak

648 Words3 Pages

Speak is a powerful and moving novel. The author allows us to follow along the journey of a young teenage girl who, despite all odds, overcomes the tragedies in her life. While Melinda is struggling to get through these obstacles, her art teacher has assigned her with the task of creating a tree that will allow her to express all of her pain and suffering. Melinda creates tree after tree, whether it’s drawn, painted, or a sculpture. I believe that the only way to fully pay tribute to this beautiful story is to take every motion that Melinda experiences throughout the entire book and express them in creating a tree. In my artwork, the grass is green just as Melinda’s future is bright and hopeful. She is a happy young girl with plenty of friends. …show more content…

The black, thicker than night, expresses the truly sinister experience that Melinda was forced to endure. Trying to sugarcoat the truth would only do it injustice. Melinda was violently raped. Unwilling to face her unfair reality, Melinda tries to bury the memory that is etched in her mind. She is surrounded by such an intense darkness that it can only be captured within the deepest of blacks. The red paint splattered on the black represents blood. This blood symbolizes many things. It symbolizes Melinda’s physical struggle that night, as well as her mental struggles that followed. The blood also symbolizes death, murder, vengeance. It symbolizes the death of Melinda’s luster, stolen by malice. It shows the emotional gravity of the murder of her innocence. Lastly, the blood represents the vengeance Melinda gets on Andy Evans. Not only does Melinda lose parts of herself, she also loses her friends. This is represented by the pink and purple branches. Her innocent friendships from middle school are tested more than ever before. Unable to explain herself and talk about her tragedy, Melinda is soon left behind by her social climbing peers. This also leads to Melinda’s grey

Show More
Related
296 Words | 2 Pages

Now the gray crib and dreary room may perhaps symbolize her sadness, loneliness and isolation she has experienced due to oppression. Not to mention, the color gray also symbolizes modesty

Read More
285 Words | 2 Pages

Throughout Speak, it is clearly shown that Melinda’s tree project has a direct correlation with how her identity progresses throughout the book. At first, Melinda is in a bad place and struggling with the pressures of going into high school after losing all of her friends and having a traumatic experience that past summer. Melinda describes her first tree attempt, “It looks like a dead tree, toothpicks, a child’s drawing. I can’t bring it to life.” (Anderson 78).

Read More
1138 Words | 5 Pages

Melinda is going through the same procedure as the tree. If Melinda put her past behind her and move on, it will give her a chance to grow. "Let me tell you about it." This quote made me happy because it was coming from a girl who stayed to herself, who wouldn't tell anybody anything, even though she had experienced something tragic. Deep down inside, her not to say nothing was hurting her even

Read More
383 Words | 2 Pages

In this story, it represents the racial differences between Sandra and the other children at her school. She didn’t have the fancy

Read More
280 Words | 2 Pages

In Speak Laurie Halse Anderson uses trees to represent Melinda's emotional growth throughout the novel. At this point of the story she has just been raped and is feeling depressed and alone and it makes her feel “diseased”. “My last tree looks like it died from some fungal infection”(92). At the start of the story she’s in a bad place because she feels that she can't tell anybody about what happened because they might not have a positive output on the things she has been through. When she starts school, everybody hates her for what she did at the party and it makes her feel unwanted.

Read More
383 Words | 2 Pages

In the novel, Anderson’s Speak, there is a multitude of symbolism examples. A crucial example is how she avoided mirrors as much as she could. The mirror symbolizes how Melinda disgusts herself as if it were her fault she had been hurt. She used the mirror as a weapon towards Andy which symbolizes how she regained control of her emotions. Anderson uses the mirror to symbolize how Melinda disgusts herself and how she used it to regain her confidence.

Read More
392 Words | 2 Pages

In the novel, “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, there is a young high school girl that is named Melinda, she has something to hide from people that she know and love but eventually she will reveal her dark secret. I believe that symbolism plays a major role in the novel because many of the symbols represent how Melinda sometimes acts at times. Throughout the novel, Unarmed is used to symbolize Rabbits, Prey, and Fear in relation to how Melinda develops. I believe that Rabbits represent Melinda as an unharming animal who can’t defend herself from problems in life. This symbol also represents Melinda in a way that she can’t fight back, all she can possibly do is hide like a rabbit in her closet or run away from Danger.

Read More
263 Words | 2 Pages

Red represents blood, death and just a scary enviroment. Zaroff's game on his "Ship-Trap Island" is hunting humans, which results in blood. Similarly, another example of color that sets a mood in the story is the color black. While Rainsford's ship got trapped, also when he was running away from the hounds.

Read More
653 Words | 3 Pages

I chose this symbol because it fits the theme by a real life situation that creates a metaphor for Titus and Violet’s relationship. Also, this symbol is adjusted into a significant part of the novel. The book, Feed, makes some connections towards real life situations. I learned that you could randomly meet a person who could turn your life around positively.

Read More
838 Words | 4 Pages

In the book, Speak, we see the author Laurie Halse Anderson intentionally use symbols to portray the way the main character is feeling. The first-person perspective of the book allows us to understand inner thoughts and feelings of Melinda, this is where many of the symbols come from. I decided to do a visual representation of the closets in Speak to take a deep dive into the different aspects of the book that lead to a rollercoaster of emotions. The closets in the book act as a safe haven for Melinda. The escape from reality is that she needs to be together with her thoughts, “The best place to figure this out is my closet, my throne room, my foster home”(150).

Read More
467 Words | 2 Pages

Hawthorne says, “Something fluttered lightly down through the air and caught on the branch of a tree” Faith’s pink ribbons symbolize purity. In the beginning of the story was Faith had her ribbons she was pure but at the end of the story when Young Goodman Brown saw Faith’s pink ribbon come down from the sky it represents how she succumed to evil and Hawthorne lost both his faith and his wife Faith. The third example of how Hawthorne uses symbolism to show the theme good versus evil in the story “Young Goodman Brown” is when the devil is telling Brown and Faith that they will have a new perspective of life, a life where everyone sins. In the beginning of the story Young Goodman Brown saw his family as godly and he saw Faith as pure but the devil shows him that his views are naive and the devil gives him the capability to see the dark side of everything and everyone.

Read More
1008 Words | 5 Pages

The red symbolized the blood shed that the savages have lost while working. This is significant because using the word red instead of blood shows how there is a lack of respect for the indigenous people in the Congo, thus making the “heart” darker than it already

Read More
730 Words | 3 Pages

But like the sign, this characteristic has weathered away. Petry writes that the sign has a “dark red stain like blood” (55). The metaphor, comparing the stain to blood, is used to give further insight to the occupants and the state of the residence. The metaphor suggests a violent mentality, and a dangerous living space. The sign as a symbol thematically ties into skewed perception.

Read More
748 Words | 3 Pages

The symbolic item that I think has a deeper meaning from others is fire. Fire can mean so many different meanings but in the book fire symbolizes chaos, fear and destruction. First, of all like I have mentioned in the beginning fire can stand for an infinite amount of reasons. But one of the meanings of fire is fear, which in the story when Jeanette Walls was three years old that

Read More
1197 Words | 5 Pages

Art is way of expression. People can use actions and art or express themselves in ways other than speaking. In the book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, symbolism holds a big significance. The trees mentioned throughout the book symbolize Melinda’s changing “seasons” (her “growing” as a person). People, like trees, go through phases, they freeze in the winter, becoming nothing but lonely limbs without leaves covered with white slush.

Read More

More about Symbolism In Melinda's Speak

Related Topics

Open Document