The Project About Speak

English 11

Mr. Reil

Oct.29

Danny Zhou 11-2

The Project about Speak

In my mind, trees represent a form of growth. They also represent Melinda's growth. We all know that trees will wither or thrive. Both kinds of forms are parts of growth of the trees, which also mean rebirth. Similarly, Melinda will also have a new start. The first tree tries to express that after a traumatic summer break, Melinda chose to be silent and enter high school. Melinda was raped by the boy at a junior high school party, but she chose to carry it all by herself, and to stay away from the crowd and noise. She was indifferent to anyone and anything. She did not speak or express her feelings. She chose to be silent in spite of her parents' misunderstanding, her friends' aversion or her teachers' denigration. She didn't speak because she couldn't find anyone who would listen to her. Both her parents and friends did not try to talk to her. The background color of the painting is dark, highlighting her frustration at that time. It is a picture of her depressed inner world, and through the items in the picture we can learn that the people around her were always changing. The leaves in the painting are turning into birds and flying away explains that all her friends had left her in those days. In the novel, “If I sit in the middle, a stranger could sit next to me. If I sit in the front, it will make me look like a little kid, but I figure it’s the best chance I have to make eye contact with one of my friends, if any of them have decided to me yet.”(Anderson 3).It describes the new friendship in the school bus on the first day of the new semester. And it showed that she was badly hurt. Of course, Melinda had a fair-weather friend. In the novel, “Look, you can’t eat lunch with me anymore. I’m sorry.”(Anderson 107).Melinda knew that the girl was not a friend she might like, but still tried to lead to a friendship. They finally broke up in discord. The image that Melinda sitting on the grass alone and covering her head corresponds to those scenes where she stayed lonely: she sat alone on the bus with her backpack, recalling her own sad moments. She wanted to forget too many things, but the end result was that the more she tried to forget, the more she remembered. When the seed is buried too deep, it is difficult to root. Her choosing to bury herself and making silence become her protective color would never let herself suffer the wind and rain, but she would also have no chance to see the sun any more, and gradually decompose in the dark soil. However, she was not only buried deep, but also living in the stormy environment. It just looked like that she asked time to solve her problem, but time made things worse. I depicted her covering her head because she covered herself with a quilt, separating herself and the outside world. She could never find a listener in the dark, and the darkness made her afraid to express herself. In the painting, the sun in the sky is covered. In the novel, “Mom turns her back to him and tells Ted she’s on her way.”(Anderson 60).They broke up in discord for the mother was too busy at the day of Thanksgiving reunion. All of these explained Melinda's helplessness and despair.
        The second tree depicts both the change of Melinda and the tree. She was bound by loneliness for a long time until one day she met her art teacher. He asked her to paint a tree with her imagination and her brush. She kept painting the tree for a year, and she began to find an outlet. The painting gave her a way to express her feelings. The teacher's care and understanding, her parents' care, her classmates' kindness, and everything she went through afterwards let her get out of the darkness. The painting gave her a way to express her feelings. The teacher's care and understanding, her parents' care, her classmates' kindness, and everything she went through afterwards let her get out of the darkness. So when we are tired, when we are covered with scars, we still need to grow as fast as that tree, and receive the sunshine again and again. Life does not give us the right to be decadent forever. There was no room for changing the past things, but she had the right to reveal the truth and change the present. People always tend to forget the past unhappy things. I admire that she could face the past with a new attitude, grow up in the great pain, get out of the closet and the narrow basement, and make the darkness the past tense. The colors of this picture are warm, illustrating Melinda's feelings of joy. In this picture, the trees are covered with leaves, which shows that her clothes were becoming brighter and brighter, and her ponytail made her more confident and started to bravely face her own life. And everyone around her was growing up. The birds are back, which means spring is coming. In the novel, “No, I haven’t decided on colors yet. That’s not what I mean, I mean no, I won’t help you.”(Anderson 179) and “I have plans. The tree guy is coming to work on the oak out front, I have to dig in my garden, and besides, I know what I want to do in here and it doesn’t include eggplant.(Anderson 180).Melinda's friend finally chose to go back to her, and Melinda also bravely expressed her ideas. Her words let us see her courage and strength. In the novel, “I didn’t call the cops to break up the party, I write. I called-I put the pencil down. I pick it up again-them because some guy raped me. Under the trees. I didn’t know what to do.(Anderson Page 183).In the library, she spoke out the fact that she was raped. Even though she was scolded and misunderstood, but she saved her friend, and also released her secret. This showed her kindness. She always cared for her friends despite of the problems between them. In the picture, Melinda stands up and enjoys the sunshine. In the novel, “They give me a handful of gift certificates, a TV for my room, ice skates, and a sketch pad with charcoal pencils. They say they have noticed me drawing.”(Anderson 72).The mother finally found that her silent daughter liked painting and bought her painting tools at Christmas. The process of exchanging gifts was actually the process of communicating with each other. The sun in the picture is the art teacher. “No crying in my studio. It ruins the supplies. Salt, you know, saline. Etches like acid. You get an A+. You worked hard at this.”(Anderson 198).Mr. Freeman recognized and followed his dream. He changed his own future. His keen observation helped Melinda get out of this predicament. David was also Melinda's mentor who helped her a lot, so in the painting, Melinda stretches out her legs and enjoys the sunshine. We should believe that time is the best medicine, and that we can see the sunshine behind the darkness!

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