Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson Setting: The book is set in a high school in Syracuse. Just from the way that Melinda explains Syracuse we can understand that she is not exactly thrilled to live there. The winters being long and brutal are what she hates the most. On a snowy day Hairwoman (her English teacher) asks the class what they though snow symbolized in the book that they were studying. Melinda finds it stupid that such a basic thing as snow has to have a symbolic meaning and she just thinks that “Hawthorne wanted snow to symbolize cold”. Now it is ironic that from such a sentence we can actually get a symbolic meaning. In this case Melinda seems to be talking about emotional cold and she always uses snow to talk about silence. The …show more content…
At first she complains that it is too easy but later on she notices that she has trouble “bringing trees to life”. Trees can symbolize life and strength and the fact that she has trouble drawing them might symbolize her struggle and depression. We can see as the book goes on that Melinda gets better at drawing trees and she learns different ways of drawing them. As Melinda begins to open up to other people and heal, her drawings get better and more detailed. This might symbolize her growth as a person. One small fact that may or may not be intentional, is that Melinda talk’s about how the diseased tree’s branches are being cut. Her father reassures her that in order for that tree to survive they needed to cut off the diseased branches. I made this connection because trees take a very major role in the book and somewhat represent Melinda herself. So in a way what Melinda did was she “cut off her diseased branches” when she left her past behind and …show more content…
Throughout the book we can feel the struggle that a high school student can go through when they are misunderstood, discriminated and looked down upon. High schools and especially North American high schools can be ruthless and brutal about the people that somehow do not fit in. In the beginning of the book it was mentioned how everybody was part of specific groups or “clans” and that someone who did not fit into a group was doomed. I believe, that even though the main topic in the book is rape the author wanted us to think about more than rape and sexual assault in high schools. The fact that Melinda felt guilty, even though she was a victim of sexual assault shows us how hard it is for high school students who do not feel like they belong somewhere to speak up. The best example we can see of this is when David speaks up against Mr. Neck. By speaking up for the right of free speech in class he proved that speaking up is sometimes the best way to fight against an unfair authority. Mr. Neck was constantly shown as a character that picked on and oppressed Melinda, so even a brief act of going against him shows Melinda’s fight against
First of all, the narrator uses the word “oracular” which means future knowledge, wisdom and prophecy. The words “oracular” and “white rhetoric” give to snow academic personality and present it as energy that articulates his wisdom. It means that the snow has knowledge about the world and the reader has
In the short story “The Possibility of Evil,” Shirley Jackson uses several symbols to tell the story about Miss Strangeworth. One symbol she uses consist of the roses that Miss Strangeworth treasures. The roses represent the love and perfection of Miss Strangeworth. As we know, Miss Strangeworth believes that the world is horrible and unclean and that she is the only perfect person. She loves her roses dearly which emphasizes her needs for everything to be perfect just like her. She values her roses so much because only she takes care of them making them a symbol of perfection and becomes one of the items that Miss Strangeworth loves and sees as superior to other roses. Another symbol Jackson uses compose of Pleasant Street, the street that
As one reads just the very few pages of the book, symbols are relevant here and there. One of the first symbols introduced is the town Starkfield. As one would mostly think Starkfield was nonetheless just a city name Wharton came up with. Meriam webster dictionary defines the prefix word “Stark” as bare, cold or empty appearance. It is now clear of how pivotal this symbol is to the story. Wharton uses this symbol to “symbolize the devastating and isolating effects of the harsh winters on the land” (Boodie). With this town we presume its an icy cold one due to the descriptions in the novel. This proceeds to the symbolism of the winter season which seems to be mostly in effect throughout the story. The winter season symbolizes feelings such as isolation and loneliness. As we all know, the winter brings on snow, ice, wind, coldness and even further in depth darkness and death. Throughout the story we see Frome hide himself in the nature of the town. With the symbolism of nature we see Ethan hiding himself through the harshness of the winter. Quoting Book Rags “ Ethan embodies the somber and bleak landscape of Starkfield itself.” With that said we can see the importance of the nature on the character’s characteristics.
Ever since the party, Melinda rarely talked to anybody, including her parents. Nevertheless, I noticed that during the second semester of the year she talked considerably more. “All right, but you said we had to put emotion into our art. I don’t know what that means. I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel.”(p122). This quote is from the third marking period when Melinda was talking to her art teacher Mr.Freeman. I believe that she wouldn’t have said anything had it been earlier in the year. “Stinks. It was a mistake to sign up for art. I just couldn’t see myself taking wood shop.”(p.146). This quote is another example of Melinda talking, this time to Ivy in the mall. I think these quotes prove that Melinda starts talking more as the year progresses.
After all, Melinda Sordino overcame her tramatic experience that led her to open up and release the painful silence she was carrying inside. The flashback that is shown of her traumatic makes up the symbolism of the tree and the closet that reflects on herself, and the conflict the character Melinda faces with her rapist, are the main literary devices that both the film and novel probes.
The plot of the book, Speak is that Melinda Sordino, a freshman at Merryweather High went to an end of the summer party with some of her friends. Things take a turn for the worst when a senior named Andy Evans sexually assaults her at the party without her friends knowing about it. Melinda is frightened, afraid, and does not know what to do so she calls 911 busting the party, and causing her friends and everyone at that school to hate her, even if they don’t know her.
In Ethan Frome, the theme of winter is predominantly used, with its confining nature, to portray each character’s hardships. For example, the theme of winter is directly linked with Ethan Frome and the harsh conditions he has to endure to survive. To Ethan, the wintry snow in Starkfield seems elegant and appealing, but as he sees later on, the snow is unveiled as a major obstacle, preventing Ethan from achieving his dreams. Winter manifests itself as the ice, cold, and snow symbolically representing the isolation that Ethan experiences. As the narrator states “when winter shut down on Starkfield, and the village lay under a sheet of snow… must have been in Ethan Frome's young manhood,” The solitude that winter brings causes Starkfield to
In the book The Giver, Louis Lowry uses symbolism to induce the reader to think about the significance of an object or character in the book. She uses symbolism using objects or characters to represent something when she wants readers to think about its significance. She chooses not to tell her readers directly, but indirectly, by using symbolism. For example, she used light eyes, Gabriel and the sled as types of symbols with different meanings.
First, Collins uses hyperbole by repeating the word “snow” five times in one sentence: “Chicago’s snowfall was so huge that the news media ran out of things to attach to “snow” - thundersnow! snowpocalypse! snowmageddon!” (Collins). She consecutively uses three portmanteaus of the word "snow" with increasing stress level to create strong feelings. She wants to emphasize that Chicago is experiencing the most massive snowstorm in the United States, one of the consequences of global warming. This is a circumstance that causes people panic. She then reminds the readers about the blizzard of 1979 which made Mayor Michael Bilandic get “kicked out of office six weeks later in the Democratic primary.” It seems that she wants to make a connection between the congressman and a snow job.
Adversity affects the lives of many individuals. Through facing adversity people tend to show their true selves. In the novel “Speak” by Laurie Halse-Anderson, the main character Melinda, faces a few different types of adversity. One form of adversity that she faces is that she was sexually assaulted. Another type of adversity that Melinda goes through in this novel is that she loses all her friends and starts to lose her family as well. Throughout my life, I have faced many different types of adversity, one major thing that I have dealt with in my life is depression. Those who face adversity in their life can choose if they want to face it or to ignore it, and the outcome will prove what they chose to do.
How is symbolism used in ‘All I Ever Wanted’ to convince readers that appearances can be deceiving?
This poem dramatizes the conflict between love and lust, particularly as this conflict relates to what the speaker seems to say about last night. In the poem “Last Night” by Sharon Olds, the narrator uses symbolism and sexual innuendo to reflect on her lust for her partner from the night before. The narrator refers to her night by stating, “Love? It was more like dragonflies in the sun, 100 degrees at noon.” (2, 3) She describes it as being not as great as she imagined it to be and not being love, but lust. Olds uses lust, sex and symbolism as the themes in the story about “Last night”.
In her story “Currents” Hannah Vosckuil uses symbolism, and a reverse narrative structure to show the story of how unnamed sympathetic and antagonistic characters react differently to a traumatic event. Symbolism can be found in this story in the way that Gary does not mind sitting in the dark alone at the end of the day as well as how both of his girls are affected by the symbolism of hands. One holding a boy’s hand for the first time and the other becoming sick after seeing the dead boy’s hand fall off the stretcher. The sympathetic and antagonistic manner of these characters is shown when both girls are told by their grandmother that they must return to the water to swim the next day. The grandmother sees this simply as a way of encouraging them and keeping them from becoming afraid of the water. However, the girls see this as a scary proposition because of what had happened, showing the grandmother as an antagonist character to the little girls.
Through the open window she sees many other symbols furthering the feelings of goodness in the reader. She sees the tops of trees that "were all quiver with the new spring life" symbolizing a new life to come, something new happening in her life. The setting of a "delicious breath of rain" in the air refers to the calmness after a storm when the sun comes back out. Kate Chopin is using this to refer to the death of Mrs. Mallards' husband and the new joyous life she may now lead that she is free of him. Also to be heard outside are the singing of birds and the notes of a distant song someone was singing, symbolizing an oncoming feeling of wellness, a build up to her realization that she is now free of the tyrannical rule of her husband.
The fact that the whole plot takes place in the post apartheid era refers to the topic of postcolonialism. In Lurie’s eyes his students are stupid and uninterested in his course. To the arrangement with the perceived futility of his existence, appertains the affair with his student Melanie, because it fills the empty time and makes him forget the fear of getting older. But the liaison comes to light and an proceedings against the teacher are instituted. Of course a lot of people are infuriated by Lurie’s deed and here feminism comes into play. The organization Women Against Rape holds a twenty-four-hour vigil together with rape victims. Everything is done protect women, there is ‘Rape Awareness Week’ on the university campus (p.43). The investigative department wants David to confess and feel remorseful but he is stubborn and sees himself superior and more powerful to the dark-skinned people. Mr. Lurie absolutely fails to see that he did a huge mistake and refuses to ...