To Speak and Not Be Heard

Speak'ring for Thy Self
Symbolism

After a long time, I've decided to revisit the book "Speak", by Laurie Halse Anderson which is about a girl named Melanie who was isolated and disliked from others in high school. She gets raped and even the new girl Heather, ends up betraying her because she thought she was too boring to be friends with. Melanie has to draw trees for her art project for the whole semester and this makes me feel that the tree is kind of symbolic to her character. I also liked how the title has a bigger meaning then just any kind of titles. In all, these symbols are meaningful and important to Melanie.

When Melanie was first assigned to draw trees, she find it hard to believe since she think that it's too easy to do and that "anyone can draw a tree". But as the story proceeds, she discovers that a tree is not just a tree. It is like a mirror image of her. A tree does all it can to live. Drawing trees represents her feelings. They have flaws like her but will fight for the nutrients and water so that it can survive. She's like dead in her own world. She feels that she cannot change until the branches of sick trees were being cut down in her yard. It turns out that in order for the tree to survive, the damaged parts must be eliminated. This tells Melanie that she can still save herself by stepping up and speak for herself to get rid of her "damaged" parts. When she is troubled, she drew a tree that has been struck dead. The tree seems to symbolize her feelings and growth. She starts to grow out of the pain. Now that I think about it, sometimes trees are shaped to look like human features and maybe this is why Anderson chose this as the symbol. The branches stretch wide and large to show its beauty while Melanie just hides constantly in her closet. Her struggles are shown when she draws the tree.

The title "Speak" is important to Melanie because that is what she has to do. She has to speak up and prove to others that she can do just the same as others can. She has to suck up all the depressing memories and just live without any burdens from the past. She was scarred, true, because she has been raped and no body believes it, but later she found evidence to prove that it has happened. If she had not spoke up, nothing like this would have ever occurred. The final goal for her seems to be to speak up for herself.

I feel that the symbols in the story tells a lot about Melanie's personally. She is complicated and may seem strange to others even though she has a nice heart. She may have been lost, but she will surely find a way that will allow her to move on to the right track. Speaking up can be more difficult for her, but that's the only method. The trees and the title represents Melanie as a whole and her growing up. It's frustrating and truly sad when you speak and not be heard, to be annoyed and not be seen. Hiding seems to be the only thing that she could have done, but no. Speaking makes a big difference.