Laurie Halse Anderson

In the novel Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson, utilizes Melinda’s non-verbal communication, to convey the significance of Melinda’s isolated emotions that are damaging her relationships. Primarily, Anderson writes that Melinda is finding different ways to come across her point of hopelessness and despair, little does she know she is falling into a deeper hole by slowly losing the people around her. Correspondingly, Melinda’s sorrowful state of mind is leading Melinda to fall right back where she…

Rape is Illegal no one should be forced into something without consent and be scarred for the rest of their life, leading into having body scars, being involved with laws, and lastly the effects of rape.Since Anderson was a child who experienced lots of things that affected her during high school, which that is why she wrote Speak. Even through her books mostly involve teen problems, it is a great first read. In Anderson’s Speak,she is giving a real life story about Melinda and she is having a…

The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson, is an intriguing novel brimming with love, suspense and hardship. Anderson capturers the adversity of being a former soldier and living with one. The Impossible Knife of Memory is about a rebellious girl named Hayley who refers to everyone as either “zombies” or “freaks.” For the past five years she has been on the road with her war veteran father that suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. They settle in the town that Hayley grew up…

In the dramatic, but sadly realistic book Wintergirls, Laurie Halse Anderson tells the story of Lia, an anorexic teenager, after her closest friend Cassie mysteriously dies in a motel room. This engrossing book is suspenseful and breath-taking as Lia and her family take on many challenges and obstacles. More specifically, Wintergirls deals with real world problems such as children actually not eating and cutting themselves because they believe it cures their pain when they don’t even feel safe…

Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen by Jazz Jennings, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, and Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson are three novels which discuss social inequality. In Jazz Jenning’s book, she explained that her parents would not let her go over a friend’s house if their family did not know that she was transgender. Jazz’s childhood influenced an innumerable…

Literary Essay: “Fever 1793” Laurie Anderson’s historical fiction story, Fever 1793 is about the big massacre that happened in Philadelphia. The disease (Yellow Fever) destroyed everything in its path by sickening people and even killing them. The feeling of losing loved one's changed everyone. Not just emotionally, but also physically. By using emotions within sentences and dialogue, Lisa Anderson shows the lesson death can change a person. Because of this whole epidemic, Mattie has grown…

learned that the more you connect to people the more it hurts when they leave. The novel The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger is about Holden, the main character, who goes through a period in his life that is filled with depression. Twisted by Laurie Anderson which is about the main character Tyler who was sort of a nerd in middle school but he trashed the school and everyone know viewed him differently, and he struggles to deal with those different viewpoints from other people. Unhealthy…

has the capability of being physically seen. Those who suffer from it might show signs, but it requires a lot for someone to look closely, pay attention, and discover what is occurring within that person’s mind. In the novel Speak written by Laurie Halse Anderson, the use of symbolism assists in portraying an unspoken theme of depression. The author shows this through the janitor’s closet, the turkey sculpture, and the constant mentioning of trees. Depression can cause people to alienate…

When her lips become chapped and torn while her throat feel raw and sore she only speaks through her drawings because she can’t physically speak. One of her assignments is to draw a tree thought the year. This tree symbolizes Melinda’s state of mind. At first it can’t find true form because Melinda can’t or doesn’t want to venture into her mind because it is too painful. Eventually the tree becomes old or attacked by lightning to show her pain. Finally at the end of the book her tree sheds it’s…

The truth is hard to say. Sometimes it’s scary. Sometimes it doesn’t seem like enough. Other times, it reveals unknown strength and power. Likewise, in the realistic fiction novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda Sordino and David Petrakis use their voices to show the world that they will not be silenced. Melinda “loses her voice” due to a traumatic event. By the end of the novel, she finally finds it and exercises it against her assailant, Andy Evans. David uses his voice to teach…