The Symbolism Of Melinda Character Analysis

In the “First Marking Period,” Melinda’s artwork symbolizes that she is struggling to cope with the beginning of high school and her journey of self expression. While in art class, and after going through many challenges in her first weeks of school, Melinda thinks, “I’ve been painting watercolors of trees that have been hit by lightning. I try to paint them so they are nearly dead,

This quote near the beginning of the book is in the context of Melinda describing her room. She says this because of how it is decorated very strangely. The way she words her sentence implies that she doesn’t know who she was when she was younger, that she is “alien”. Because of this and the fact she has no friends, she can’t relate to anyone, not even her past self. This causes her to be pushed deeper into her depression.

In the beginning of the book, Melinda is assigned to draw a tree in art class. First Melinda goes to art class and gets a simple tree to draw. “Tree. Tree? It’s too easy” (p.12).

The tree in Speak symbolizes Melinda’s emotional state when at first she finds no meaning in drawing the tree then she finds the courage to speak up about her rape experience. As Melinda is starting her artistic path, Mr. Freeman says his opinion on her artwork and she develops an understanding that her art work could compare to her life.

Maisie originally set out to be a nurse, but Lady Rowan's friend Maurice Blanche whom is an investigator herself noticed Maisie intuitive gift. Then 10 years after the Armistice, Maisie sets out to be a private investigator, one who has learned that coincidences are meaningful and truth elusive. With the help of Lady Rowan, her friend Maurice Blanche, and the men she treated, she later realizes she should be an

The tree symbolizes the fact that Melinda is recovering from the rape. The first reason proving Melinda is recovering is that she confronts her old friends. Melinda is indecisive if she should warn Rachel about Andy Evans. At this point she is getting along with Ivy and Nicole. Melinda is also progressing well emotionally. This is shown through the following quote: “There has been some progress in this whole tree project... I’ve gone through different phases…I’m getting better” (152). This relates to how Melinda is progressing in fixing her broken friendships. Ivy: “You’re better than you think you are…its fine the way it is, layer the leaves and make them slightly different sizes and it will look great. You have a great start here. She’s right” (146). These quotations show that Melinda is recovering, and this recovery is shown through her confrontation with her ex-friends. Melinda confronting her ex-friends represents that she is making an effort to heal. She felt that the only way to heal is by speaking to her friends and telling them the

Audrey is not in denial, she is well aware that Alike is different and not like other girls as she tells her husband “your daughter is turning into a dam man right in front of your eyes” (56:58) yet rather than accepting Alike for who she is, she forces Alike to wear woman like clothing. Even though Alike fears her mother, she still displays her true identity in public changing into boy like clothing as she leaves the

The symbolism deals with the main character’s memories letting them grow and change. In Speak, Melinda has to spend her whole year in art attempting to draw the perfect tree. The tree symbolizes growth, due to the fact that trees grow as well as the fact that with practice, her tree became perfect. “I’m seeing a lot of growth in your work. You are learning more than you know.” (Anderson, 121) says Melinda’s art teacher. Melinda’s own growth made her realize that she needed to finally tell someone her old flashbacks, instead of keep them all inside. Melinda realized that her peer Rachel was in danger. Andy Evans did traumatizing things to Melinda, she knew that if she did not warn Rachel, the same things may happen to her. Therefore, Melinda spoke up. In The Third and Final Continent the corn flakes symbolize change. The cornflakes were his first real meal in America. The cornflakes symbolize him attempting to change. “In the end I bought a carton of milk and a box of corn flakes. This was my first meal in America.” He is not used to American food and tradition. In both of the passages the characters grow and change. The man used the cornflakes to let him begin to change culture. His old memories allowed him to make the change. Likewise, Melinda’s tree symbolized her growth. She grew as a person throughout the passage. She used her memories to her advantage, which lead her to grow. They use their memories to allow themselves to

The play, “Faust”, has many intriguing characters that represent vile roles in the Bible. Gretchen, the young peasant girl being one of these characters. After inclusive research, I’ve come to the decision that Gretchen can be widely compared to Virgin Mary for many reasons, as to Eve as well. Both women symbolizing two totally different things, come together and make Gretchen the character she is in the play “Faust.” These two models together, correspond to the two completely different sides of Gretchen’s character, which is what makes Gretchen my favorite character and the most unique. I will begin by comparing Gretchen to Virgin Mary then moving on to how she can be compared to Eve.

A mirror only reflects who people have become on appearance, but whispers to the psyche of its audience to reveal who they desire to be in their fantasy. A mirror plays a rather important role in most of our mundane lives routinely used to fix erratic hair, oddly looking at ourselves brushing our teeth, and for some, correcting the red mountain flaws against the skin. To a ballerina a mirror represents a sense of alignment with one’s body. To Nina Sawyers, perfecting her technique is important and the only way to fix her mistakes is if she turns her life upside down. Sawyers practices so often she starts to take notice of her evolution from childhood to adulthood through a mirror.

Everyone that goes to the same school as Claudia and Maureen thinks that Maureen is a gorgeous person. The students treat Maureen very differently from how they would normally treat each other. Everyone was jealous of Maureen and her “beauty” but Claudia and Frieda were not. Claudia and Frieda were actually proud of who they were. The fact that they were proud of who they were, is shocking because everyone else wanted to be like Maureen. Claudia and Frieda seem to just ignore the fact that Maureen has a lighter color skin and continue to be themselves without worrying what she was going to think. In present day, when one is portrayed as beautiful, everyone will try to follow what that person does in hopes to also be viewed as beautiful. However,

It’s not easy growing up, but everyone has to go through it. For young people it is harder than for others, and they may not have anybody to help them out with their problems. They go through many rapid physical and mental developments in this period of life, which can make them do various things, to make people notice they have a problem. In this case we meet the main character Marie, who is 13 years old and is friends with Rachel. Marie is described as lumpy and very mature for her age, like Rachel says :“as though she was an adult squashed inside a 13-year-old body” (s. 5). She is wearing a baggy blue cardigan, that a grandma would wear, and a pair of sloppy canvas shoes. She also has a smear of bright pink lipstick, which Rachel thinks make her look too grown up and ugly. Marie is new to the village, she is from the

Throughout the book, trees largely represent the emotional encumbrance of a character. An obvious example of this is the Chokecherry tree which Sethe carries on her back. Sethe receives the “tree” after being whipped, and is on the run from Sweet Home. She does not even know that she had the tree until she meets Amy, who points out to her, “Your back got a whole tree on it. In bloom.” (93) Sethe’s Chokecherry tree represents the burdens of her time at Sweet Home, and that her back still hurts and inconveniences her show that she still carries that emotional burden as well. The second instance of this symbol appears when Sethe and Paul D fight for the last time, in the passage, “’You got two feet, Sethe, not four,’ he said, and right then a forest sprang up between them; trackless and quiet.” (194) The forest that separates Sethe and Paul D is a product of their personal emotional burdens, and represents the personal effects of such encumbrance. Trees represent the weight that Sethe and Paul D each carry on their shoulders as a result of their time at Sweet

Neither the narrator nor Angel criticizes her murder of Alec. Although she is no more a virgin

The lyric poem “Mirror” was written in 1961 by the late Sylvia Plath. This poem was not published until 1971; ten years after it was written. “Mirror” was written two years before Plath separated from her husband and shortly after committing suicide. “Mirror” speaks freely about women and their obsession with appearance and aging. In a way Plath used Mirror, in order to portray what she herself had been dealing with, in a time where she felt the most vulnerable and insecure as she was getting older. This was a self reflection poem from the voice of a third party; which in this case would be the mirror itself. The Mirror was the main character that would see many faces, after reading this poem it would seem as if Plath was using the mirror to criticize women in general for feeling the way they do about their appearance, when in fact the second stanza focuses on one particular woman, which is believed to be Plath criticizing herself for the way she felt about her appearance and aging. The theme of women and their obsession with appearance and aging is portrayed through the use of various literary devices and no specific rhyme scheme, however, metaphors, symbolism, and imagery are prominent throughout the entire poem.