Speak

Imagine going into your freshman year and haveing eveybody hate you because you called 911 at a party the summer before; they don't know that you got raped at that party. You’re the student who everybody stairs, at who nobody talks to and who can quiet a room just by walking into it. This happens to a girl named Melinda in the novel Speak. In this novel Melinda has a very dysfunctional family with many symbols thoughout the whole novel.
To begin with the symbols in this novel are very interesting because very from a art project to the tree in her yard. Although Melinda is shy and quiet the tree in the novel represents her life greatly. Likewise Melinda has a bad life; therefore the tree she must complete the before the end of the year in art class keeps turning out horrible. In addition in Melinda’s yard there is a dead tree that needs trimming before dieses take over it. Towards the end of the book Melinda’s father has the branches trimmed. This relates to Melinda life because at the end of the book Melinda forgets about all of the memories and goes on with her life just like the tree branches getting cut off, the tree is going to go on with his life.
Now that you know what the tree means as a symbol, the other symbol that I want to talk about is the closet. In the high school one Melinda decides to make a secret hide out so one day after school Melinda doesn’t take the bus home and cleans out the old janitor's closet and makes a hide out. This symbol is like a sanctuary where Melinda can go during the school day to hang out and take a load off. This is also where Melinda hangs her bad art work. Melinda’s closet is good for her because it is a place where she can think and relax
In addition to the bad memories Melinda’s family is very dysfunctional. Her parents argue a lot; evidence of this is on page 36 “Deprived of victim Mom and Dad holler at each other.” This shows that Melinda’s family is very dysfunctional and don’t listen to what each other has to say and I don’t think arguing is going to help so my advice is to talk one at a time, also listen to what each other has to say this way they will be more functional. Secondly Melinda being so shy does not help the family being so dysfunctional because nobody want to be around somebody that doesn’t talk also if she ever wants to get along with her family she has to tell them what her feelings are.
To finish off with this novel in which there are many symbols and a very dysfunctional family.