The book I have just finished reading is called Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. The publisher of the novel is Farrar Straus Giroux and was publisher in October 1999 with 197 pages. The genre of this novel was teen fiction. The cover automatically caught my attention when I first saw it, when I started reading it nothing failed to impress me. I instantly fell in love with the storyline and the concept due to the fact that it was so relatable.…
This passage from Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel Speak shows how the main character, Melinda, has to face and overcome her biggest fear, speaking up against Andy Evans. When Melinda gets locked in the closet with Andy Evans, she is scared for her life. She sees him as “made out of slabs of stone”(193). Melinda still thinks of Andy as an invincible beast and she is still obscenly afraid of his strength. She envisions his hands as “enormous”(193). Therefore showing how frightening his size and physique is. She knows he can and will rape her again if she does not do anything about it. Melinda tries to scream but the “only sound [she] can make is a whimper” (194). Her best attempt at calling out for help comes out as a whimper. She uses the word “whimper” to describe the sound she made was as if she is a small animal, hurt by a larger predator, and that what is occuring in the closest.…
A flashback is something an author uses to bring the reader back in time to help them understand an event happening in the present. Usually, a writer uses it to let the reader know something that happened previously in the character’s life without starting at that point in the book. A character can have a flashback in a dream or…
Aynne McAvoy never lived a picture perfect childhood. In "Haunting on the Hill", Aynne speaks about the paranormal experiences she had as a child. When she was four years old, her parents moved their three children to an older home in Watertown, New York. Her father traveled often on business, so the family moved closer to their grandparents. The family did not realize how this move would affect their lives for years to come. The 50-year-old house came with an unique history. A history that was patiently, and quietly, waiting for the right family to activate it. Many people who do not believe in the paranormal falsely accuse the witnesses of fabricating experiences. McAvoy's article is convincing to the audience, because as they read the stories told the combination of pathos, background credibility, and well-structured composition makes the readers want to dig further into the article.…
Imagine a flightless bird, injured and alone in the forest, watching their flock fly away without them. This is what Melinda’s, the main character in Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, life is like. Melinda was raped the summer before freshman year and no one knew, she then panicked and called the cops causing her peers to believe she ruined the party, and because of this Melinda isolated herself and became stuck in a void of depression, which caused her to be incredibly quiet and melancholy. Her friends and family do not understand what it is that is debilitating her and therefore do not do anything to help her, assuming that she cannot be helped out of her flightlessness. They all fly away from her due to the fact they see her as something that holds them back and assume it is her fault for not…
In Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak, trees symbolize Melinda’s growth throughout her life to stay sane and pass the horrific time of her life. Depression is her first phase, when she starts to paint the trees that were hit by lightning. It is also shown by her not talking to many people. She starts to realize that she cannot be perfect when she imagines a beautiful oak tree but really cannot carve it properly. Her third phase comes when the trees outside her house has a few sick branches and she decides to let go of the present Melinda who is not letting her grow and nurture the old Melinda, the one before the party, the fun and outgoing one. The last phase, and tree was the one she drew for the last art project, it was a living, and breathing tree which was when she finally realized that she can stop punishing herself for happened because it was not her fault. In Laurie H. Anderson Speak, Melinda started off as a mute, scared girl but slowly regained her voice by expressing herself through the art of trees. Through the art of drawing trees, Melinda comes out of depression and guilt and becomes a more positive person.…
The Teaching Theology and Religion Journal published a peer-reviewed article in April 2014 entitled “Teaching Soren Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling.” The author of the article is Jonathan Malesic (2014), an associate professor of theology at King’s College in Pennsylvania. The article discusses Professor Malesic’s attempt to teach his students about Kierkegaard’s very influential work, Fear and Trembling (Malesic, 2012).…
In the book “The Memory Keeper's Daughter” by Kim Edwards a doctor and his wife have twins and the first child is a healthy boy but then the second child that comes out is a little girl with the signs of down syndrome and he asks his Nurse to take the baby away to an institution while he tells his wife the baby girl died. Through out the entire book it is a struggle for Dr. Henry's wife Norah to have closure with the fact that her baby girl is said to be dead and she never saw her, held her, or cared for her. Kim Edwards shows through the whole book that we are only human, the themes that life is beyond our control and through the connection between suffering and joy.…
It has been said that we do not know the true value of our moments until they have undergone the test of memory. In her memoirs Virginia Woolf dwells upon treasured memories of a fishing day in her childhood in the company of her dad and brother. This is not a memory lingering at the back of her mind, No. It is one that she vividly contemplates, remembering every word, every detail. Her use of language effectively conveys the lasting significance of these moments from her past.…
The word foreshadow is a literary term that describes how the author discreetly gives clues to the readers that something is going to happen before it actually happens. George and Lennie, two men who have become close friends over time, travel together to a ranch to pursue their dream. George is Lennie's caretaker, for Lennie is mentally challenged. Throughout the story, foreshadowing plays a significant role in the most important chapters of George and Lennie's journey together. The three events that foreshadow the future are George telling Lennie to return to the brush if trouble occurs, Candy’s dog getting shot, and Lennie petting a dead mouse.…
Ghost Story The short story "A Rose for Emily,"� by William Faulkner, is a very predictable ghost story. Three things that make this story so predictable are: the haunted house setting, the creepy old woman, and the disappearing fiancé.…
In addition, it wasn’t until Chapter 22 that the event was retold. The event was so significant that it “was then that her first inner change took place.” (page 178). In summary, the distortion of time hinted to the readers of an important event that is coming and the background knowledge of the event that will later take place, casts an ominous presence that will make the reader more…
Fargo is a film directed by Joel and Ethan Coen in Brainerd, Minnesota in 1996. Unlike many films, Fargo was filmed in a periodic pattern with three sets of characters that progressively run into one linear trail. The film has a first person narration with both an omniscient and limited view. However, Fargo does have an Antagonist and Protagonist in the movie, which in this case is like most films. Fargo is set in modern day and was actually shot in Minnesota, where both directors were born. The movie was actually based off a true event that took place in Brainerd, Minnesota in 1987. The film chooses to focus on the actual event and give as much detail. The script was pretty close to the actual incident. Fargo is the movie that spans the line…
as the reader wants to know why this particular moment in time is significant to the story. The reader is oblivious to what they are talking about and…
The story conveys the sense of an entire life in a few pages. This impression is communicated through her flashbacks which serve to develop her stoicism and resolve.…