We don't just want to teach content, we want to Influence Lives

By -
         I don't think Melinda would have survived her freshman year without Mr. Freeman. His classroom is her healthy safe haven the entire duration of the novel. She has her janitor's closet, but that's not where is needs to be. Mr. Freeman is constantly tossing seeds at Melinda in hopes of her catching one. Just maybe, if she catches one, she can add some sunshine and water on it, then watch it flourish. Melinda did just that.  Mr. Freeman sees her potential, he criticizes her, and he makes her try. In the beginning of the novel Melinda's stream of conscience concludes that it is easier for her to keep quiet because no one cares about her or what she has to say. She says, "It is easier not to say anything. Shut your trap, button you lip, can it. All that crap you hear on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie, Nobody really wants to hear what you have to say"(9). Mr. Freeman proves her conclusion wrong at the end of the novel with this statement: "You're a good kid, I think you have a lot to say. I'd like to hear it" (125). Finally, someone wanted to know what Melinda had to say. He encourages her to embrace her pain, her scars, and to speak up the entire time. Unlike Mr. Neck, Mr. Freeman really does see her pain, without words, and encouraged her to express it through a tree, which is what seeds grow up to be. He literally says he sees her pain through her art. He taps his chin, gets serious in a way she has never seen and says, "This has meaning. Pain" (65).
         It is made evident throughout the novel that  his words of wisdom are starting to grow on her. She is contemplating her feelings when she compares hers to his. She remembers that, "Mr. Freeman thinks I need to find my feelings." Mr. Freeman is the only one who really cares what she has to say. Her other peers have shunned her, Heather is too busy worrying about clubs and other people, and her parents just suck. Mr. Freeman notices her, makes her feel like she matters, so Melinda listens to him. The Tree assignment Melinda is assigned from day one serves as an extended metaphor of herself. Mr. Freeman is the only one routing her on to make this discovery. 
        Melinda finally realizes this and her tree is breathing. Mr. Freeman tells her to, "Make it bend- trees are flexible, so they don't snap. Scar it, give it a twisted branch- perfect trees don't exist. Nothing is perfect, Flaws are interesting. Be the tree"(153). She needs to speak up and drop her branch because as she stated, "If this tree really lives someplace, that branch better drop soon, so it doesn't kill the whole thing"(196). Her tree is breathing, but it is having to be flexible and hang on until the branch drops. She represents the tree and her branch represents IT and the incident. Her tree has many marks and the bark is rough;however, she has roots that reach for the sun. The new roots represent hope, and a new outlook. She concludes that, "The new growth is the best part"(192).  She learns to become the tree, to speak up, and she tells the person who was there for her the entire time, Mr. Freeman. 

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 17, 2017 at 5:42 PM

    Hey Jessica, I'm so glad to read that someone writing about Mr. Freeman, especially as a supportive teacher (as that is what most of us strive to be)!
    You realize that Mr. Freeman makes directly commentary on Melinda's thoughts, and Melinda is heavily impacted by what Mr. Freeman thinks of her. I think you're definitely right and would like to make some other points as well! Obviously, 'Freeman' is a very symbolic in that he frees his students from the torturous routine of school and allows them the freely express themselves. Freeman also goes through his own arc, through the art piece that he makes in front of the students. His first piece focuses on school being a prison (a lack of freedom), but destroys this piece (freeing himself from the prison and the artwork itself) in place of a piece that focuses on "Venice at night" (103). Throughout the story, Freeman struggles with authority of the school and I would argue that he and Melinda are similar in many ways.
    You also bring up that Melinda is the symbol of the tree and the tree a symbol of her growth, and I could not agree more. This tree has grown and changed over the course of the year, just as Melinda has! But her final tree showcases the entire year in one art piece. It is beautiful, just as her story is.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Growing Pains - The Symbolism of the Tree in Speak

By -
I have felt the paralyzing pain of internal disease. The kind of trauma that causes your mouth to curl in and swallow you whole. I, like so many other women, are walking the halls in Melinda’s shoes in “Speak.” I thought Laurie Anderson did a phenomenal job of twisting all of the tribulations a high school girl goes through, into the tree that Melinda is. Whether we’re as strong as an oak or weak as a bush, we have all gone through the disease that strikes Melinda from the inside out. Melinda is like a half-dead tree. Some parts of her strive to blossom and create beauty. Other parts are broken and diseased. Like a dead tree, Melinda needs to save herself and “cut off the damage, [so it] is possible for the tree to grow again” (187). The symbolism of a tree is significant in “Speak.” Trees reflect her growing process. In the beginning, Melinda is a sick and lifeless tree. Her view is negative and dark. She’s so far past repair, bursts of sunlight do her no good. Sunlight would be pe...
Read more

How Starr Goes from Acting to Embracing in The Hate U Give

By -
In The Hate U Give, Starr Carter is caught between two worlds. She lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, but her father sends her and her brothers to a private school where she is surrounded by white people. She talks about acting differently depending on what group she is around, which can create some identity problems. She says on page 11, "Funny how it works with white kids though. It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black." When at Williamson, she sees white kids that think it's cool to engage in black culture, but she knows they don't understand what she goes through in her Garden Heights community. She witnessed her friend Natasha's death when she was 10 years old, and she sees gang activity in her community all the time. When she is among her black friends, like at the party, they tease her for hanging out with the white kids. This reminds me of a Drake song where he says, "I used to get teased for being black, and now I'm...
Read more

Postmodernism in Curious Incident

By -
Before I start writing, I first want to acknowledge that I just really loved this book! It seemed like a lot of the class had trouble enjoying or appreciating the novel because it's so different stylistically, which is understandable, but all of those unique elements helped make the novel more authentic. The main topic I want to focus on (also what I'm writing my paper on) is how a lot of postmodernist elements were used in the novel to make Christopher come to life. While obviously not every postmodern novel is about an autistic kid, I think Haddon really used a lot of these elements to his advantage and they ended up working out really well to characterize Christopher. One of the major postmodern elements which helps this book really craft an authentic portrayal of autism is the fact that it's metafictive. Basically, this means it's a "story within a story." Readers would be extremely limited just reading the parts of the novel which are meant to be C...
Read more