Every 100 minutes a teen commits suicide, suicide is the the second leading cause of death in teens. Twenty percent of teens have gone through depression by the time they reach adulthood. This depression can be caused by bullying or not having friends. In the book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character is a girl named Melinda who is going through depression because she called the cops on a party, lost all of her friends and is getting bullied for it. The theme in this book is loneliness and the symbol is a tree as it represents friendship and growing as a person. No matter how lonely a person is the tree will always be your friend and keep your secrets and continue growing.
Your life is like a permanent record you can’t erase …show more content…
People have bruises and scrapes like everyone else and everyone has their flaws just like a tree. In the book Melinda in not flawless and neither is anyone in her school. The one thing that she is trying to make perfect is her tree, but the tree will never be immaculate, One day in art class she was working on her tree and Mr. Freeman said to her “You are getting better at this but it not good enough. This looks like a tree, but it is an average, ordinary, everyday, boring tree. Breath life into it. Make it bend- trees are flexible, so they don’t snap. Scar it, give it a twisted branch, perfect trees don’t exist. Nothing is perfect. Flaws are interesting. Be the tree”(153).Melinda is much like the tree she is damaged and has been through rough times but you wouldn’t be human if this didn’t happen to you and you are for sure not splendido. Sometimes trees have a huge battle for survival in different conditions and even though a tree is surrounded by others in a forest it can still feel lonely like Melinda felt in school when she was surrounded by other students, but had no real friends to share her confidence with, which made her incredibly depressed. Melinda persevered creating her tree and as she did so she gained in confidence and eventually shared her story with Mr. Freeman. She will always remember Mr. Freeman as the teacher that taught to to come out of her shell and receive
Your life is like a permanent record you can’t erase …show more content…
People have bruises and scrapes like everyone else and everyone has their flaws just like a tree. In the book Melinda in not flawless and neither is anyone in her school. The one thing that she is trying to make perfect is her tree, but the tree will never be immaculate, One day in art class she was working on her tree and Mr. Freeman said to her “You are getting better at this but it not good enough. This looks like a tree, but it is an average, ordinary, everyday, boring tree. Breath life into it. Make it bend- trees are flexible, so they don’t snap. Scar it, give it a twisted branch, perfect trees don’t exist. Nothing is perfect. Flaws are interesting. Be the tree”(153).Melinda is much like the tree she is damaged and has been through rough times but you wouldn’t be human if this didn’t happen to you and you are for sure not splendido. Sometimes trees have a huge battle for survival in different conditions and even though a tree is surrounded by others in a forest it can still feel lonely like Melinda felt in school when she was surrounded by other students, but had no real friends to share her confidence with, which made her incredibly depressed. Melinda persevered creating her tree and as she did so she gained in confidence and eventually shared her story with Mr. Freeman. She will always remember Mr. Freeman as the teacher that taught to to come out of her shell and receive