Symbolism in Speak
“I am Outcast.” Pg 4 There is a secret that is so horrifying that you can’t tell anyone. Everyone hates you. An empty janitor’s closet beckons you when you are sad and art is the only place to express your feelings. This is the life of Melinda Sordino, a young freshman who called the police at a party in the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. The reason she called the police is unknown to everybody else and she refuses to speak to them.
There is a lot of great symbolism in this story. In her art class she has to draw a tree. At first Melinda doesn’t want to draw a tree so she makes it look like a second grader tree. After that she starts to draw trees that look dead which is how she feels, lifeless, alone, silent, misunderstood, and ignored. Also during thanksgiving Melinda makes a turkey sculpture which shows how she feels. The turkey sculpture is of a Barbie doll with tape over her mouth and she is trapped in the bones of the turkey. This is also how she feels because she doesn’t speak and she feels trapped like the Barbie doll.
There is also symbolism when she is in biology. “Our frog lies on her back.” Pg 81 this is when she faints in biology because she is dissecting a frog. She doesn’t faint because of the frog, but she fainted because she was remembering when she got raped and she was picturing herself as the frog. It should also be obvious because she is already calling her frog a girl. There is one more thing that happens to Melinda. When it is winter break she goes outside to make a snow angel and she is fine but when the wind rustles the trees over her head she has a panic attack because she is having a flash back to the night she got raped. “The wind stirs the branches overhead. My heart clangs like a fire bell. The scarf is too tight on my mouth. I pull it off to breathe. The moisture on my skin freezes. I want to make a wish, but I don’t know what to wish for. And I have snow up my back.”Pg 71
There is a lot of symbolism in this story that relates to Melinda and how she feels. In the end of the story she feels better so her tree drawings look happier and more alive which is how she feels. The reason she is happier is because she finally speaks to people about what happened to her. This book tells a realistic story which tells us that it is better to speak than to stay quiet, because if you don’t speak then people can’t help you.
