Speak and Diary

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In both The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and Speak, both protagonists use art in order to build upon their own voices as individuals who seek to belong.  In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Junior, an adolescent male Indian who lives on a reservation uses cartoons because they are a way for him to formulate his thoughts and experiences into a form of language everyone can understand.  He believes that languages are too specific and unpredictable, so if he is able to draw cartoons then can talk about the world in an artistic form, and maybe his drawings lead to a way to escape from his reservation; drawings are his lifeboats in a community where everyone is drowning.  Junior draws cartoons to better understand the world, to make fun of people, and to honor those who are close to him.  During a time where Junior is shunned by others on his reservation for enrolling in a white school, and failing to be accepted at his new school because of his race, Junior seeks to find his place, his identity, and his voice.  Through his struggle to find himself and his own voice in the world, Junior turns to drawings to help him navigate and better understand his relationships, experiences, and the communities that surround him.  Cartoons allow Junior to artistically communicate his experiences as he seeks to find acceptance.
In Speak, Melinda Sordino, a freshman who begins the school year being shunned by her peers for calling the police at a party where she was a victim of date rape, uses art to help her find her voice to tell the truth about what happened.  Afraid to tell anyone about the rape, Melinda keeps the dark secret to herself and begins to lose her identity and her voice.  She is given a project in her art class to create a tree that depicts true art full of feeling and meaning.  Throughout the book, Melinda struggles to navigate where she belongs, and begins to spend most of her time in a dark closet and falls silent.  Throughout her struggles participate in school and in her family, she also struggles with the ability to depict a tree in a way that is worthy of the title, art.  As she begins to deal with her withdrawal and silence, and is able to gain the courage to talk about the rape, she is also able to grow in her artistic abilities.  By the end of the novel, Melinda is able to break her silence and tell her story.  She is also able to create a tree that earns her an A+ in art, the only class for which she earns an A. 
Both novels tell stories of adolescents who struggle to find their place within their communities and turn to art in order to communicate their experiences and build a voice of their own.

Comments

  1. TashaTOnlineFebruary 1, 2017 at 10:36 AM

    I love how you examine the role of art in these texts. Do you think art, in it's many forms, provides a similar outlet for the typical adolescent? And could you think more about each author's purpose for making art integral to the protagonist's struggle. "Voice" is a very important them in Speak--both literally and figuratively. Can you think more about how her art becomes her voice? Art definitely facilitates finding a place in the community, but for Melinda, isn't it also a source of healing? This would be a great topic for exploration in either a literary analysis or a research paper. Thank you for your response!

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