Silence and Art - Kelsy Mckeown

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Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is an interesting work in that, while it's main focus is definitely on Melinda's struggle to speak and interact and grow again after her rape, it also has an interesting sub-focus. That being the struggle of creativity. It is shown both through Melinda's struggles with her art project, but also through Mr. Freeman and his own artistic struggles as shown over Melinda's semester at Merryweather High.

You can see that Melinda really struggles with her art throughout the semester we are presented with of her life, her art project tree looking "hopeless" ( Anderson 32 ) and like a "flat, a cheap, cruddy drawing" ( Anderson 55 ). These comments are made during the depths of her depression and self-suppression; when she feels most confined and disillusioned. We can also see that Mr. Freeman has his own artistic struggles, either real of feigned ( as there is enough context in some passages we can possibly draw the assumption he is feigned difficulty to encourage his students or perhaps Melinda directly ).

Overall, I found that it was not my favorite novel I've read, but that it has a number of good messages and points to make.

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 18, 2017 at 8:04 PM

    Kelsy,
    I never even thought about the book being about creativity. Now that I think about it, it makes sense. Very good observation. I feel like Mr. Freeman played a huge role for inspiring creativity.

    ReplyDelete

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