Laurie Thompson

Phases in the Life of Melinda Mr. Freeman said “Be the tree.” to Melinda in Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel Speak. Melinda’s growth is described through her artwork, and other forms of the trees in this novel. In this story, Mr. Freeman, the art teacher, passes around a globe full of subjects for the students to work on for the entire year. Melinda reaches inside, and pulls out the slip of paper that says “tree”, at first she thinks that the subject is stupid and boring, but it ends up helping…

are hidden in the book such as trees, mirrors, lips, and closets.But lips in Speak have the greatest impact to the story. Melinda's lips represent her emotions, communication,and expressing freedom of speech throughout the story and melinda's life. Laurie Halse Anderson uses lips in the book Speak to portray emotions in the main character Melinda. Melinda is not a very happy girl. She never really show her true feelings other than sadness. When she does show sadness it's alone and no one can…

What is the definition of family? Is family just the people descended from a common ancestor, or could it be more than that? The story Fever 1793 written by Laurie Halse Anderson suggests a different meaning of what family truly is. The story is about a 14 year old girl named Mattie Cook who lives in a house above their family's coffee shop in Philadelphia during the time of the Fever outbreak in 1793. Once the fever breaks and her mother becomes feverish, Mattie flees the city with her…

the story of a person overcoming that block their best self. It’s truly inspiring because I think all of us are engaged in that everyday.” A constant reason of barricade is the insecurity we feel in certain times of our lives. In the novel, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, many characters experience self-doubt and worry. The most prominent examples of insecurity are the conflicts that Heather, Rachel, and Melinda reveal throughout the novel. In the case of Heather, we see a young girl and the…

Simmons and Thompson v. Oklahoma the act of murder was committed by minors who were tried, convicted, and deserving of a fitting punishment. However, in this analogy between the primary and secondary analogue, the argument of Roper v. Simmons is if a minor under the age of 18 should be sentenced to Capital Punishment, and if doing so is a direct violation of the Eighth Amendment citing cruel and unusual punishment (Roper v. Simmons, 2005). The Supreme Court ruled in the case of Thompson v.…

lifetime. Out of these 20 million women, only 16% of these rapes were reported to law enforcement. Why? Because these people are afraid to tell anyone. They have no one who they can really trust and they feel alone and afraid. In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda, the protagonist, was…

Within the film “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” we gain a strong perception of a pseudo-psychedelic trip. In this particular scene, Duke (Johnny Depp) has consumed more than enough Adrenochrome, causing him to fall into a drug induced trip, while Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro) tries to get rid of Lucy. The stylistic choices made depicts the hallucinogenic structure of the film via camera movement, framing and composition, colour and by the use of depth within the scene. Adrenochrome is a drug…

Meta-fiction is a huge part of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, really the whole book is meta-fictional. Thompson is telling the story of a trip he took at a different time, with a lot of imagined details thrown in. In the text there are countless examples of different meta-fictions, but perhaps the most important one is the illustrations throughout the book. Again, pretty much every illustration is it’s own meta-fiction, but one in particular stands out in my mind, the one with the caption that…

Fever 1793 Matilda Cook lives in Pennsylvania at the Coffee House with Mother, Grandfather, his parrot- King George, Silas- Matilda’s cat, and Eliza their cook. Polly is the serving girl and she didn’t show up to work one day. Mother goes to get tea, when she gets back she tells Mattie that Polly had died, Mother told Mattie and Eliza that she had the fever and there was no doctor around. More people were getting the fever. Rumors start spreading and people begin staying away from the shops by…

someone do if something horrific happened to them? Would they call the police and leave the scene without telling the police what happened, making the whole student body hate them, or would they stay and stick up for themselves? Speak, a book written by Laurie Halse Anderson portrays a girl named Melinda, who was raped at a party and later called the cops. After she had called the cops she ran away and the whole student body began to hate her because the police broke up the party. However, she…