The Symbolism Of Mascots In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

A school mascot is a symbol of pride. Of home. Of family. It captures all the hope and self worth of the students in a school, and all the competitiveness, loathing, and rivalry of the other schools. A mascot is an important symbol in life, and also in the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. A book in which the main character, Melinda, attends Merryweather High, a school going through many dramatic changes in mascot throughout her freshman year. These mascots symbolize the very dramatic changes in Melinda’s character throughout the book; there are five different mascots that represent the five parts of her recovery, a recovery that can be broken down a bit more simply into three different stages: “From Heaven to Hell’, “The Endangered Animal”,

The book starts out with a scene in which melinda observes “[the] janitors painting over the sign in front of the high school. The school board has decided that “Merryweather High - Home of the Trojans” didn’t send a strong enough abstinence message, so they have transformed us into the Blue Devils.” (3-4) The symbols of painting over who she used to be for what her horrible experience has forced her to become, the disgustingly ironic fact that the school which houses her rapist has a pro-abstinence message. This is terrible, but it also follows Safe Horizon’s “After Sexual Assault: A Recovery Guide for Survivors” step 1 which is: “I acknowledge that something terrible happened to me.” (Safe Horizons, 17) She fell from a Trojan heaven, to a depressing

Safe Horizon’s “After Sexual Assault: A Recovery Guide for Survivors” step 2: “I am beginning to deal with my feelings about the assault.”(17) She’s no longer suppressing the memory constantly, and she begins to realize how much “the incident” made her change and grow up. “I’m too old for trick or treating. … I look out my window. A group of little creatures is coming up the walk. … I checked out a book from the library, Dracula, by Bram Stoker.” (Anderson, 40) She’s reading instead of trick or treating. Halloween comes and goes, and “in a post-Halloween frenzy, the school board has come out against calling us the Devils. We are now the Merryweather Tigers. Roar. The ecology club is planning a rally to protest the “degrading of an endangered species.” This is the only thing talked about at school. ” (Anderson, 49) As she realizes that she's older, and things have changed she’s also becoming more independent, and a little more fierce, but still endangered. Safe Horizon’s “After Sexual Assault: A Recovery Guide for Survivors” step 4: “I am beginning to understand my feelings