The novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is about the struggles of being sexually assaulted, and the daily tests of being in highschool. The main character, Melinda has a hard time with being alone, and not wanting to tell her story. Coming towards the end of the book Melinda faces her biggest fear and learns to express herself through art, specifically through the form of a tree. Throughout the novel, the tree is used to symbolize emotions, growth, and flaws in relation to how Melinda developes.
The main motif of the tree was to symbolize her emotions. Melinda is the tree. In the beginning she is simple, she is only showing her basic emotions, her trees are also simple a kindergartener could draw them...she puts no emotions into her tree, and she puts no emotions out into the world. Eventually, there
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She starts out terrible at drawing and eventually gets better. “There has been some progress in this whole tree project...I've gone through different phases.” (Anderson 151) Melinda’s growth is expressed by her project. In her last tree she drew, the tree was breathing, so was she...just one of the simplest representations you could find; but you can always dig deeper. The tree is not perfectly symmetrical, has rough bark and a dead branch, this represents how life is not symmetrical it has its imperfections, the bark represents how she had a rough first year in high school with losing all of her friends and having to deal with being raped; this leaves the dead branch, that is her innocence...it got taken away from her and if she did not speak up it would have controlled all of her, the branch lets say got a disease unwillingly if it did not fall or get cut off it would have taken the whole tree with it. Lastly the birds represent Melinda growing new wings and coming back into the real world; taking flight and knowing she can make a difference.(Anderson Ch. 90) The true meaning of the tree is having growth and
The tree “swings through another year of sun and leaping winds, of leaves and bounding fruit.” This sentence evokes images of happiness and serenity; however, it is in stark contrast with “month after month, the whip-crack of the mortgage.” The tone of this phrase is harsh and the onomatopoeia of a “whip crack” stirs up images of oppression. The final lines of the poem show the consequences that the family accepts by preserving the tree—their family heritage. When the speaker judges the tree by its cover she sees monetary value, but when she looks at the content in the book she find that it represents family. Even though times may be tough for the family, they are united by memories of their ancestors.
Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a story written in the first person about a young girl named Melinda Sordino. The title of the book, Speak, is ironically based on the fact that Melinda chooses not to speak. The book is written in the form of a monologue in the mind of Melinda, a teenage introvert. This story depicts the story of a very miserable freshman year of high school. Although there are several people in her high school, Melinda secludes herself from them all. There are several people in her school that used to be her friend in middle school, but not anymore. Not after what she did over the summer. What she did was call the cops on an end of summer party on of her friends was throwing. Although all her classmates think there was no reason to call, only Melinda knows the real reason. Even if they cared to know the real reason, there is no way she could tell them. A personal rape story is not something that flows freely off the tongue. Throughout the story Melinda describes the pain she is going through every day as a result of her rape. The rape of a teenage girl often leads to depression. Melinda is convinced that nobody understands her, nor would they even if they knew what happened that summer. Once a happy girl, Melinda is now depressed and withdrawn from the world. She hardly ever speaks, nor does she do well in school. She bites her lips and her nails until they bleed. Her parents seem to think she is just going through a faze, but little do they know, their daughter has undergone a life changing trauma that will affect her life forever.
She stopped letting me sleep on the bottom bunk; she began to tease me about my fears.” (Evans 46). As 9 years old child, Allison is annoyed of Tara because she’s being tedious. Allison’s act might be seen as siding with her grandmother, and this directly explains that Tara went through the suffering alone, without anyone supporting her. This might be the reason why in the end, Tara decided to jumped off the tree, because she felt tortured and pressured badly by everyone surround her, and no one ever pay attention to her. Her best friend who she had always spent time with, giving her back to her, and stressed her to the point that she dare to jump. Somehow, we encounter these kind of situations in real life, and Evans are trying to make readers realize such tragedy really did happened in our surroundings. Frustration due to racial discrimination actually happens commonly. Those kinds of mistreatment that one’s receiving due to differences in race or culture indirectly affect his or her mentality and their character development. Evans wants the readers realize that such offensive behavior we frequently do – whether it is intentional or not intentional – affect other person’s psychological state. Readers ought to be aware of any shape of discrimination among our society and to select suitable actions when binding relationship with people from other
The red tree by Shaun Tan is all about depression. Shaun Tan wrote this book so the readers and viewers know what it is like with depression. The last picture is the book is when the girl is in her room with the tree uses lots of techniques including body language for an example the smile on the girls face which means she might feel happy agian and her gazing up to the tree. It would make the auidence feel happy as the girl found something to make her happy as some days beign with nothing to look forward to.
Betty Smith’s novel A Tree Grows In Brooklyn is a tale of poignant family relationships and childhood and also of grim privation. The story revolves around the protagonist of the story, young Francie Nolan. She is an imaginative, endearing 11-year-old girl growing up in 1912, in Brooklyn, New York. The entire story revolves around Francie and the Nolan family, including her brother Neelie, her mother Katie and her father Johnny. An ensemble of high relief characters aids and abets them in their journey through this story of sometimes bleak survival and everlasting hope. As we find out, the struggle for survival is primarily focused against the antagonist of this story, the hard-grinding poverty afflicting Francie, the Nolan’s and Brooklyn itself. The hope in the novel is shown symbolically in the “The “Tree of Heaven””. A symbol used throughout the novel to show hope, perseverance and to highlight other key points.
In this story the trees developed just like the characters. They are sitting around talking when Turtle says the word “beans”. Taylor thinks that she says the word “bees” but doesn’t realize that Turtle is looking at the wisteria vines. “Will you look at that, ‘I said. It was another miracle. The flower trees were turning into bean trees”(194). When one gets to this point it is close to the end when every character is finding their place. They are still developing but it’s not as messed up as it was in the beginning. Just like the trees they first start out as a seed and at some time they will become mature enough to produce what they are supposed to
Has there ever been a time in your life where the challenges you were facing seemed too impossible to conquer? Many have felt that way, but have pushed through and overcame. In the book, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, a little girl named Francie grows up during a difficult time in New York. The young girl lives in a poor neighborhood with her family. She learns that anything can happen if you put your mind to it. The author, Betty Smith, taught her readers to push through any obstacle in life, through the books conflicts, setting and research.
Analysis: This setting shows in detail a location which is directly tied to the author. He remembers the tree in such detail because this was the place were the main conflict in his life took place.
The Tree of Heaven is crucial to the novel as it represents the lives of poor people and it also suggests that Francie will grow up to become much stronger despite her struggles surrounding her impoverished family. There are multiple references to trees in the first third of the story. Multiple character refer to the tree in order to talk about strength and the hardships of growing up. The setting of the story is also very important in shaping Francie as a character because it allows the audience to see Williamsburg through Francie’s eyes and create more of an understanding of her situation and feelings. In the beginning of the novel, it is also evident that Francie takes great pleasure in books and reading which displays her childlike wonder. The idea of imagination and childlike wonder is very important to Francie as a character because it shows the reader that even though she is in this very difficult situation, she is still a young child having to deal with people in her community shaming her family. Mary Rommely, Katie’s mother, also discusses the importance of imagination with her just after Francie is born. She tells her “the child must have a valuable thing which is called imagination. The child must have a secret world in which live things that never were. It is necessary that she believe.” The theme of gender difference is also an important part of the story. Normally in a household, the man would be in charge of the house and finances, but because of Johnny’s alcohol problem, Katie must become much stronger and take control in the house. After Francie is born and Katie is having her discussion with her mother, Mary grows upset because she believes being born a woman leads to a life of
Esther is at conflict with herself and she uses the fig tree of a symbol of the many paths she can take and it was as a “wonderful future beckoned and winked” from each path. The dilemma is that Esther can’t decide to choose a path and then the figs went “black…and…plopped to the ground at [her] feet.” She wants “two mutually exclusive things,” and refuses to pick one because she would rather “fly back and forth.” Since Esther is incapable of making a choice she loses all her options which leads her to develop depression. It starts out with Esther realizing that she more of a free-spirit “Pollyanna Cowgirl” like Betsy. From there Esther stopped being able to focus, it was as if her “mind glided off” (147). Esther starts not being able to write her letter are loopy and seem as if they were “blown askew.” Esther wonders what is wrong with herself, the psychiatrist Dr. Gordon only seems to make her wonder “what terrible thing” she had done. Eventually matters escalate to the point that Esther is trying to come up with ways to kill herself. Finally she realizes that her trouble lies not in physically state but in a mental state “deeper…and…harder to
Symbolism plays a key role in the novella in allowing the author to relay his political ideals. In The King of Trees, Cheng uses many elements of nature to represent both revolutionary and counter-revolutionary ideas. The king of trees - and trees in general - throughout the novella is a symbol of counter-revolutionary ideals, and the older Chinese customs. Li Li, and in turn, the followers of Mao Zedong/the Red Guard, believe that “In practical terms, old things must be destroyed” (Cheng 43). This is shown through the felling of the trees – getting rid of the Old Chinese cus...
Innocence is something always expected to be lost sooner or later in life, an inevitable event that comes of growing up and realizing the world for what it truly is. Alice Walker’s “The Flowers” portrays an event in which a ten year old girl’s loss of innocence after unveiling a relatively shocking towards the end of the story. Set in post-Civil War America, the literary piece holds very particular fragments of imagery and symbolism that describe the ultimate maturing of Myop, the young female protagonist of the story. In “The Flowers” by Alice Walker, the literary elements of imagery, symbolism, and setting “The Flowers” help to set up a reasonably surprising unveiling of the gruesome ending, as well as to convey the theme of how innocence disappears as a result of facing the harsh reality of this world.
... by how beautiful the trees were, and the terrible scar on her back is referred to as a cherry tree, full of life and beauty. It is images like these that characters memories draw for us, images that might not have been alluded to if their memories weren’t tapped.
Next, the change in the tree symbolizes many things. For instance, the tree in the first act shows no emotion, no nothing, and no leaves it is basically simple; however, in the second act it grows a few leaves showing a sense of hope, future, beauty, change, and life. The tree can in fact also be only a reference for the change of time. In addition, the tree can also be viewed in a biblical sense if the reader decides to go that route.
In conclusion we can say that the pear tree in Bliss serves very much as a symbol and a metaphor for Bertha by representing us her feelings: the pear tree is in fullest richest bloom and so she is, too. Also the awakening of her sexuality is imaged by the pear tree and thus Bertha is no longer young ¡V which is suggested by her name ¡V but has gained the same maturity as the pear tree.