Imagine that every time you see or think about someone, your blood chills and you become overwhelmed with a horrifying event that happened to you. When you see your abuser you turn into a statue and people next to you can hear your heart beating. In the phenomenal book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson this is what the main character Melinda goes though. This carefully written comedy is dripping with sensational symbolism.
Starting off, the powerful plot of Speak is a picture perfect comedy in every aspect. To begin, Melinda, the main character's world is normalcy because like a lot of upcoming freshman she goes to a high school party and does some things that she shouldn’t be doing like drinking. Then the conflict arises when Melinda is traumatized about being sexually abused, because every time she sees her abuser she doesn’t know what to do, like a deer in car's headlights. Onto that the main character realizes the conflict on page 125, when she says “Jeans that fit, that’s a good start. I have to stay away from the closet, go to all my classes. I will make myself normal. Forget the rest of it.” This passage shows that Melinda has finally realized that her life has been like a shard of glass because Andy Evans broke her away from her friends and personality. Next the resolution occurs on page 195, when she says, ” I reach in and wrap my fingers around the glass triangle. I hold it to Andy Evans neck. He freezes. I push just hard enough to raise one drop of blood.” Melinda’s conflict is resolved here because she finally spoke and took charge of what someone was trying to do to her. Ending the book, the world is back to normalcy because Melinda has her life back; she has friends again and doesn’t have to let her horrifying moment keep on eating away at her, like a bug eating away at a leaf.
This clear-cut comedy is also filled with thought provoking simple symbolism. To begin that the mirror breaking represents her breaking away from her negative and “I don’t want to do anything” phase. This is because in the beginning of the book she puts a picture of Maya Angelou over the mirror in the dusty dirty janitor closet because her life is like a puzzle and she doesn’t know how to put it together. Ending the book Melinda uncovers the mirror, which revalues her real personality and opinions, like seeing the real picture once you finish the puzzel. When the mirror breaks Melinda is breaking away from her past and not going back. Another sensational symbol is Melinda’s yard representing how her life is going at a certain time. Starting with on page 166 when she says “I have to fight the bushes. They snag the tines of the rake and hold them-they don’t like me cleaning out all the rot” At this time Melinda is trying to break away from her past but it is hard for her because she can’t forget the time that Andy Evans abused Melinda against her will. Onto that Melinda finally clears her past on page 195 when she says “The front yard raked, edged, mowed, and the brushes are mowed.”At this time Melinda conquered her fears and is now back to her normal self because she has friends and feelings again. Finally Andy Evans to Melinda represents fear and uncertainty. Whenever Melinda see Andy, her blood chills and she has to get away from where she is as quickly as possible. Also whenever she thinks of the time he abused her she has no idea what to do or how to do it like in her painting of tree’s. When she doesn’t know what to do or how to do it, like in her painting when she doesn't know what to draw.
Laurie Halse Anderson's clear-cut comedy and symbols has one main meaning that it should teach the reader. That lesson is that if it seems like everything is perfect and nothing is wrong, you are just one stupid move away from being miserable. If you mess up just once, it may ruin the rest of your year or even the rest of your life; just like Melinda.
