Growing Pains - The Symbolism of the Tree in Speak
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...
Not only did she completely lose her innocence by being raped, but it was also taken advantage of by her step-father, the uncle husband, aunt Bimla, etc. Several people took advantage of a child, and in the process she lost herself. You did a great job incorporating her loss of innocence in such a sad novel.
ReplyDeleteReally awesome view on the book! Just the depravity that the world has resorted to is heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteI agree that she never really lost her innocence, which was really refreshing. While reading this book, I was hoping that she would become a shrewd, savage of a "woman." I constantly reminded myself that she was just thirteen. I wondered how old the other girls were and how long they had been there; some of them definitely were not as innocent as Lakshmi.
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