Right before high school starts, your freshman year, you go to this party. Bad things happen at this party and you decide to call the police. Now that it’s the first day of school everyone hates you for calling the police at that summer party. What would you do? Would you scream or would you live through it? Melinda, the main character, is in one of those situations that she wants to tell everyone about the problems she is having, but she can’t. Art is the only way she can freely express herself.
To begin with, the main symbol in this book is the trees. Melinda is in art class and her teacher, Mr. Freeman, lets them pick a word that will by theirs for the rest of the year. She thinks at first that this would be a simple task and wants a new word, but she will soon find out that this is no small task at all. During one fall weekend she wakes feeling like she needs to rake the yard. She goes outside and rakes all the dead leaves out from the bushes and she looks at the dying tree in the front yard and feels like she is dying too. Later in the year she is in her backyard making snow angels under her tree; she takes a minute to think about life when the wind blows and suddenly the scarf on her neck seems to tight she can’t breathe. I believe that this symbolizes when she was back at that party over summer and when she was in the woods and was hurt by a boy.
Secondly, The book is a tragedy. The book is tragedy because the main character is not in control because she is a total outcast in her school, she always feels as if nobody likes her. Melinda is friendless, she has no light at the end of her tunnel. She is out casted and everyone hates her. I feel bad her because she sounds like she could be really nice, but she never talks. She has no voice, no-one lets her SPEAK.
Finally, the book SPEAK is very realistic book about teenagers everywhere getting pressured into doing things that they would usually know is bad. Melinda defiantly gets stuck in some sticky situations in this book. But, in the end everyone likes her again.
