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Symbolism In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

736 Words3 Pages

In the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the protagonist, Melinda, is assigned to create a tree a million different ways all year. In doing so she finds ways to convey her emotions through her drawings. There are many different types of trees in the world. A tree that shows symbolism and draws emotion out of me would have to be a weeping willow tree. The weeping willow tree is elegant, girly, but has a tragically beautiful side to it. I am like a weeping willow in many ways, I come off light but friendly and girly, but I also have my sadness and secrets that I show but not in distinct ways. Like a weeping willow I am grace and bubbly if you will. When you think of a weeping willow what do you think of? I think of ginormous and beautiful trees with pink and green leaves or flowers on the beautiful wilting and droopy branches extending themselves …show more content…

What makes me think these trees hide sadness is the weeping in the weeping willow, the droopy branches like a sad teenagers shoulders slumping their whole body , making it look like their contracting from their stomach and might just crumble to the ground, or how when you look into someone’s eyes you can see their true emptions. A person can tell a whole movie by using their eyes. You can smile with your eyes, or show curiosity with that childish gleam, or a pang of sadness, with bloodshot eyes and tears brimming your bottom eyelashes. Maybe someone is severely depressed and you can tell by the deadness of their eyes and how they look off in the distance longing for something they once had to return. A trees branches and trunk are like a person’s body language. Weather the branches are strong and confident or dainty and crumpling apart. I have had a lot of people tell me I am honest without knowing because my eyes show everything, this has come to be my main insecurity and I hide my “branches” with my

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Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson shows us the life of a young teenager with her mouth tied shut. The name of this teenager is Melinda Sordino, Melinda has grown significantly from the beginning to the end of Speak. Throughout all of this there have been three main symbols, a mirror, trees, and an old janitor's closet. These symbols expressed the importance of self-esteem, overcoming obstacles, and sanctuary.

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Silence symbolizes dread, apathy, and incapability. Wiesel cannot understand how the world can remain silent as the Nazis committing atrocities on the Jews. It also symbolizes the silence of the subjugated and oppressed. Eliezer, for example, stands silent when his father is beaten, unable to help him. The whole town of Sighet remains silent to the pleas of Moshe the Beadle, who warns the town of what is coming.

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Richard Wright’s poem “Between the World and Me” mourns the tragic scene of a gruesome lynching, and expresses its harsh impact on the narrator. Wright depicts this effect through the application of personification, dramatic symbolism, and desperate diction that manifests the narrator’s agony. In his description of the chilling scene, Wright employs personification in order to create an audience out of inanimate objects. When the narrator encounters the scene, he sees “white bones slumbering forgottenly upon a cushion of ashes,” and a sapling “pointing a blunt finger accusingly at the sky.”

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The tree represents all the poor inhabitants of the tenements and how strong they are, and how they manage to survive with almost nothing. However, the tree of Heaven more specifically

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Bedrooms are a repeated symbol used in Anderson’s Speak that expresses the struggles with establishing identity. An early example of symbolism involving bedrooms occurs when Melinda criticizes her room for not matching her personality. Just after Melinda rushes up to her room, she is reminded of how out of place and strange her bedroom is. Melinda thinks, “My room belongs to an alien. It is a postcard of who I was in fifth grade.

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She at first thinks the task of drawing a tree is easy, but she soon realizes it is harder than it seems. Melinda can easily picture a tree in her mind, but she can not draw it. This relates to Melinda before and after she was raped by Andy Evans. Before the rape, Melinda is represented by the tree when she says, “I can see it in my head: a strong old oak tree with a wide scarred trunk and thousands of leaves reaching to the sun”(78). Melinda was completely fine before the rape occurred, and she was happy with herself and her surroundings.

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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.

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Dana Gioia’s poem, “Planting a Sequoia” is grievous yet beautiful, sombre story of a man planting a sequoia tree in the commemoration of his perished son. Sequoia trees have always been a symbol of wellness and safety due to their natural ability to withstand decay, the sturdy tree shows its significance to the speaker throughout the poem as a way to encapsulate and continue the short life of his infant. Gioia utilizes the elements of imagery and diction to portray an elegiac tone for the tragic death, yet also a sense of hope for the future of the tree. The poet also uses the theme of life through the unification of man and nature to show the speaker 's emotional state and eventual hopes for the newly planted tree. Lastly, the tree itself becomes a symbol for the deceased son as planting the Sequoia is a way to cope with the loss, showing the juxtaposition between life and death.

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The specific features drawn on the tree can reveal many things. The trunk is seen to represent inner strength, self-esteem and intactness of personality. The use of faint lines to sketch the trunk can represent vulnerable, passive and insecure feelings. Very thin trunks suggest a dependent and uncertain (precarious) level of adjustment of that person. If the person draws a heavily sketched bark on the trunk, it shows the person has anxiety; whereas barks that are drawn carefully show inflexible, compulsive

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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.

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branching off of the trees that are darker in color. Frost uses juxtaposition to show the contrast of the darker trees amongst the white bark. The bark of birch trees can vary in color, white to darker ones such as black. Although the ones he specifically describes are the darker birches, which helps develop the connection to stressful times. The birches being that darker color shows the imagery of bad times and now in this line he puts forth a possible hypothesis claiming that a boy has been swinging on them.

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Peer pressure affects teenagers because they feel like they have to do it and they are expected to do something that they don’t want to. I feel that in “Speak” Laurie Halse Anderson is practically saying that peer pressure is everywhere and a lot of people do it.     In the story, Melinda was pressured into drinking, having sex, and skipping class (Halse). I have been pressured into skipping class a few times, but I have never done it. Melinda and I have both been pressured into skipping class (Halse).

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Feeling of A tree when being cut In this thankless world stood a caring

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