Blog #2

In the novel Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, the protagonist Melinda Sordino faces challenges that she learns to overcome with the help of Mr. Freeman, her art teacher. Many motifs, a recurring subject in a literary work, were included in this novel, but one main one was a tree. Throughout the novel, the tree is constantly being brought up. In the beginning of her high school journey as a freshman, Melinda was required to turn an object, her tree, into art and make it mean something. When the reader thinks of a tree, growth and purity come to mind. As we later find out towards the end of the novel, Melinda was raped by senior Andy Evans during an end of summer party. Melinda spends the whole year working on her tree. The tree symbolizes her growth as an individual from the day she was raped to the character she becomes in the end. Character building was an important key in this novel. Melinda was this mute person at first, but in the end she learned to speak the truth. She matured into this strong, independent, hard- working character, and was no longer afraid. The cover page of the novel is a tree, with someone hiding behind it. Even before reading the novel, one can predict that the main character was hiding from something or someone. Mr. Freeman was the teacher who pushed her to do her best. All in all, the novel unravels the importance of speaking the truth and dealing with difficult situations, such as rape.