Literature Circle: Independent Response

In her novel Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson illustrates culture and values through art. Melinda, a freshman in high school isolates herself from others and remains as mute as she can possibly be. Ever since the night of an end of the summer party when she called the cops, Melinda is hated by everyone in the school because some kids got caught for having possession of alcohol at the party. No one knows that Melinda was raped and called the police because she was scared. Since most of the kids in her school don't want to be her friend and want to stay away from her, she doesn't make a complete effort to make friends. She often expresses her feelings through her artwork instead of speaking to people, which she doesn’t gain the courage to do. Melinda shows that she is very passionate about art because that is the only class she has an A in when she is close to failing every other subject. On Thanksgiving, Melinda's father attempted to prepare a turkey dinner, but the turkey wouldn't thaw out. Melinda's father decides to chop up the turkey, but that doesn't work out too well when the turkey gets dirt on it. When Melinda's father wants to throw away the turkey bones, she takes them and decides she could use them for her art project. She is assigned to make anything using the topic of a tree. Instead of thinking of the turkey as useless bones, she thinks they can be used to make a great project. "I want to make a memorial for our turkey. Never has a bird been so tortured to provide such a lousy dinner. I dig the bones out of the trash and bring them to art class. Mr. Freeman is thrilled. He tells me to work on the bird but keep thinking tree." (61) Melinda uses her creativeness through her artwork. This is her only way of showing what she is capable of doing because she doesn’t try at anything else, as her grades show. For everything thing else that comes up in her life, she gives up automatically and doesn’t bother trying because she thinks nothing will turn out right. Conversely, in art, Melinda tries to succeed at her tree project even though she fails at creating one to the best of her ability many times. Melinda also created a place in the school for herself to be alone. She cleaned out and decorated an abandoned janitor’s closet she found where she could think through the problems in her life. “…I sweep and mop the floor, while I scrub the shelves, while I chase spiders out of the corners. I do a little bit of work every day. It’s like building a fort…My closet is a good thing, a quiet place that helps me hold these thoughts inside my head where no one can hear them.” (50-51) Melinda wants her little closet to be special because she knows she will want to spend a lot of time in there to get away from the kids who hate her. She wants this place to make her feel comfortable and to get rid of her horrifying memories of the night she was raped, so she cleans it and fills it with what she loves; art. Not many people value art as Melinda does and that is what makes her unique. She uses it as a comfort in her life and expresses her emotions through it. Although many artists express their emotions through their artwork, Melinda shows her feelings in a different way.