Speak Essay

Symbolism is used to represent many meanings. In the novel Speak, the protagonist Melinda draws a tree that symbolizes her in many ways. The tree symbolizes Melinda’s growth and her journey to overcome depression. It symbolizes Melinda’s silent personality. Also, it symbolizes Melinda cutting off her depression. The tree symbolizes Melinda’s growth and journey. Right after summer, a tree starts losing it leaves and becomes ill once winter arrives. It lives through a dark and depressing period. But once spring arrives, the tree will grow and flourish with life again. Melinda is like that tree. After the rape, she went to school during fall and winter living with depression. However when spring and summer arrived she began to grow out of her depression and decided to let everyone know about the rape. “There’s more. Different pens, different handwriting, conversations between some writers, arrows to longer paragraphs. It’s better than taking out a billboard. I feel like I can fly.”(Anderson 186) Around the end of the first year in high school, Melinda decides to let the other students hear about the deception Andy uses. She expresses herself through writing on the bathroom walls. This is a sign that Melinda is overcoming her depression and she feels confident and reborn like a tree in spring. Overall, the tree symbolizes the growth and journey Melinda went through. In Speak, the tree symbolizes how Melinda cuts off her depression. Melinda talks to her dad when he is saving a tree. “He’s not chopping it down. He’s saving it. Those branches were long dead from disease. All plants are like that. By cutting off the damage, you make it possible for the tree to grow again. You watch, by the end of the summer, this tree will be the strongest on the block.”(Anderson 187) After hearing what her dad had to say Melinda realizes the truth. She realized that if her dad does not cut off the diseased branch the whole tree will be infected. She relates the tree’s problem to