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Affects of violence on teens
Affects of violence on teens
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Before High school Melinda is assaulted and becomes depressed and a bit of recluse.When high school starts and she is in art class Melinda draws the subject of a tree which greatly symbolizes many things about Melinda through the school year. 'I've been painting watercolors of trees that have been hit by lighting. I try to paint them so they are nearly dead but not totally' ( Anderson 30,31) this says to me a multitude of ideas. One of those ideas is that Melinda is just simply putting up a facade of life when inside she is really just dead and gone. I also feel like Melinda wants to live a full life but is frightened. She is frightened because she doesn't know if anyone will believe her about being assaulted and wishes for an outlet. Also I think Melinda wished for someone to talk to during the beginning of the year because of her mood thoughts and actions. 'I can see it in my head: a strong old oak tree with a wide scarred trunk and thousands of leaves reaching to the sun' ( Anderson 78 ) what this symbolizes about Melinda to me is that she is like an old oak for many reasons. One reason is because an old oak has been scarred and hurt many times but still keeps reaching for the sky. Which is similar to how Melinda is because of how the assault hurt her but eventually she …show more content…
learns how to take the pain and ignite it and use it for good. I also feel like this quote also symbolizes how Melinda is slowly fading in from the darkness that is her mind. I feel this connection because when someone reaches for the sky like the oak it means they are trying to reach for something good instead of dark and painful. 'If I were you I'd just let it out, draw.
Here-try a tree' (Anderson 146) what this symbolizes to me about Melinda is that she wants to talk but doesn't know how. She doesn't know how to speak because she doesn't know if anyone will trust her and if they would just ridicule her instead of believing her. Also Melinda doesn't know how to get her feelings out because before trying to draw a tree she was trying to carve a linoleum block but kept messing it up. I also think it symbolizes how Melinda is slowly learning how to talk or let her feelings out. I think this quote symbolizes this by having Melinda draw with another person instead of just being
alone. 'Roots knob out of the ground and the crown reaches for the sun tall and healthy. The new growth is the best part' (Anderson 196) this symbolizes to me Melinda's new growth by the end of the year. It symbolizes this because Melinda decides she likes the growth of herself instead of retreating inside her mind and wallowing in self-pity like she usually does. I think it also shows that Melinda is ready to speak because she has relearned how to find her voice. Plus I think Melinda shows she has regained some of her mental health by making her tree have an healthy aspect to it. Lastly I also think Melinda realized she couldn't let one event rule her life because by the end of the book she has learned that she can be heard if she will only use her voice.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, what a splendid name for this book. Most people that have not read this book might only think that this book is about a tree growing in Brooklyn. Not knowing that this book is really about Francie Nolan. Francie is the tree that is growing in Brooklyn. She is growing up so quickly, not because she wants to, but because she has too. Francie was basically forced to grow up in her mid-teens. She had to help support her family. The world that Francie lived in also contributed to her growth into womanhood.
In her story “Currents” Hannah Vosckuil uses symbolism, and a reverse narrative structure to show the story of how unnamed sympathetic and antagonistic characters react differently to a traumatic event. Symbolism can be found in this story in the way that Gary does not mind sitting in the dark alone at the end of the day as well as how both of his girls are affected by the symbolism of hands. One holding a boy’s hand for the first time and the other becoming sick after seeing the dead boy’s hand fall off the stretcher. The sympathetic and antagonistic manner of these characters is shown when both girls are told by their grandmother that they must return to the water to swim the next day. The grandmother sees this simply as a way of encouraging them and keeping them from becoming afraid of the water. However, the girls see this as a scary proposition because of what had happened, showing the grandmother as an antagonist character to the little girls.
...lth declined. Unlike Prynne, Melinda is not indifferent to her fellow companion; instead, she is silent with thoughts and opinions of her companions. Anderson used Melinda’s reactions to the dejection and how deceit, despair, and dejection coincide to allow the readers feel as though Melinda was sitting next to them in class or walking pass them in the store.
Holly Janquell is a runaway. Wendelin Van Draanan creates a twelve year old character in the story, Runaway, that is stubborn and naive enough to think she can live out in the streets alone, until she is eighteen.She has been in five foster homes for the past two years. She is in foster care because her mother dies of heroin overdose. In her current foster home, she is abused, locked in the laundry room for days without food, and gets in even more trouble if she tries to fight back. Ms.Leone, her schoolteacher, could never understand her, and in Holly’s opinion, probably does not care. No one knows what she is going through, because she never opens up to any one. Ms. Leone gives Holly a journal at school one day and tells her to write poetry and express her feelings. Holly is disgusted. But one day when she is sitting in the cold laundry room, and extremely bored, she pulls out the diary, and starts to write. When Holly can take no more of her current foster home, she runs, taking the journal with her. The journal entries in her journal, are all written as if she is talking to Ms.Leone, even though she will probably never see her again. Over the course of her journey, Holly learns to face her past through writing, and discovers a love for poetry. At some point in this book, Holly stops venting to Ms. Leone and starts talking to her, almost like an imaginary friend, and finally opens up to her.
Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a story written in the first person about a young girl named Melinda Sordino. The title of the book, Speak, is ironically based on the fact that Melinda chooses not to speak. The book is written in the form of a monologue in the mind of Melinda, a teenage introvert. This story depicts the story of a very miserable freshman year of high school. Although there are several people in her high school, Melinda secludes herself from them all. There are several people in her school that used to be her friend in middle school, but not anymore. Not after what she did over the summer. What she did was call the cops on an end of summer party on of her friends was throwing. Although all her classmates think there was no reason to call, only Melinda knows the real reason. Even if they cared to know the real reason, there is no way she could tell them. A personal rape story is not something that flows freely off the tongue. Throughout the story Melinda describes the pain she is going through every day as a result of her rape. The rape of a teenage girl often leads to depression. Melinda is convinced that nobody understands her, nor would they even if they knew what happened that summer. Once a happy girl, Melinda is now depressed and withdrawn from the world. She hardly ever speaks, nor does she do well in school. She bites her lips and her nails until they bleed. Her parents seem to think she is just going through a faze, but little do they know, their daughter has undergone a life changing trauma that will affect her life forever.
“I start on the leaves, suffocating the bushes”(p.166). This quote describes Melinda going outside and doing yard work on her own without being asked to, which I don’t think she would have done before. Another example is when she asked her dad to bring her some flower seeds (p.168). These quotes prove that Melinda definitely becomes more active during the second half of the year. When the year started, Melinda did poorly in school.
...ors to describe her life and situation. This comes primarily from the fact that in her therapy sessions that is how she is taught to deal with everything. For example, one metaphor she talks about is “… she comes up with the idea of lighting candles to symbolize my past, present, and future…I’ve noticed my past melting… my present candle has stayed pretty much the same,” (D 266). She explains them as her past is become less controlling, her present is her and concrete ideas and her future is bright and untouched. These metaphors show how much she has grown and allow the things she is learning to have more meaning. All of these combine to make the piece very effective and insightful. They help to get her point across and call people to action to help against these crimes.
In the same way the book is similar to the movie, literary devices play an important role in enhancing the novel and films conflict of Man Vs. Man of the character Melinda because she feared her rapist Andy Evan who was a senior in her high school and was in constant struggle to avoid him. For example, "IT sees me,IT smiles and winks. Good thing my lips are stitched together or I'd throw up" pg. (22.2). The antagonist Andy Evans kept teasing the protagonist Melinda to relive her initial experience everytime she would see him. Melinda calls the police during a party in the summer before her freshman year in high school, which causes the party to stop and the people from the party finds out she called the police. She begins her freshman year as an outcast because they blamed her for getting them in trouble. Since she didn't want to tell anyone about that night all her friends isolated from Melinda. Throughout the film and movie it shows several of her traumatic flashbacks of her being raped. For example she mentions in the book, "I have to slice open her belly. She doesn't say a word. She is already dead. A scream starts in my gut – I can ...
Even though Melinda’s society rejected her, Ivy becomes an important friend to Melinda. Ivy supported Melinda and made her feel confident when Melinda wasn’t too happy. An instance of this is when Ivy helped Melinda feel better when she was down. After Melinda tried to talk to Rachel, and got rejected, Ivy noticed how depressed Melinda was and she tried to make her feel better. As the book states, “Someone touches my arm gently. ‘Melinda?’ It’s Ivy. ‘Can you take the late bus? I want to show you something.’... There’s more. Different pens, different handwriting, conversations between some writers, arrows to longer paragraphs. It’s better than taking out a billboard. I feel like I can fly” (Anderson 185-186). Ivy was trying to make Melinda feel better because she could tell how sad Melinda was. When the author writes “Different pends, different handwriting, conversations between some writers, arrows to longer paragraphs”, she’s trying to show the reader that Melinda has the support of many people so instead of being thrown around like a rag doll, these people gave her strength and became her backbone. They allowed her to stand up and resist being tossed around. As the
There are also foreshadowing events that occurred during the story. One event in particular is when she is in art class and asked to draw a tree and she has difficulty in presenting her ideas until Mr. Freeman asks her to make a collage using random items. After putting the collage together, Mr. Freeman comments that it represents pain. Melinda has difficulty drawing details and life into her trees just like in her own life s...
Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn presents the problems of a young girl coming of age, a time when she is faced with new challenges and must overcome obstacles. Throughout the book the protagonist, Francie Nolan discovers herself maturing as she struggles with loneliness, the loss of innocence and a life of poverty in a Brooklyn slum. This theme is evident in (1.) her love for books which she uses as companionship, (2.) her outlook on the world as she matures and finally, (3.) her realization that in order to succeed in life she must obtain an education and work hard to do it.
Since the beginning of slavery, African Americans have been held at a lower standard for education. American government prohibited African Americans from learning how to read, developing inequality in education and further success. White supremacists’ intentions were to allow White Americans to continue to prosper further and create barriers to prevent African Americans from succeeding. An academic journalist, Nathaniel Jackson, employed the words of John Ogbu of the University of Berkley, “…the monopolization of resources for academic enterprise (colleges, universities, foundation, and government funding agency review boards, journals, and other publishing put-lets) by the dominant group and the provisions of only limited and controlled access
Betty Smith’s novel A Tree Grows In Brooklyn is a tale of poignant family relationships and childhood and also of grim privation. The story revolves around the protagonist of the story, young Francie Nolan. She is an imaginative, endearing 11-year-old girl growing up in 1912, in Brooklyn, New York. The entire story revolves around Francie and the Nolan family, including her brother Neelie, her mother Katie and her father Johnny. An ensemble of high relief characters aids and abets them in their journey through this story of sometimes bleak survival and everlasting hope. As we find out, the struggle for survival is primarily focused against the antagonist of this story, the hard-grinding poverty afflicting Francie, the Nolan’s and Brooklyn itself. The hope in the novel is shown symbolically in the “The “Tree of Heaven””. A symbol used throughout the novel to show hope, perseverance and to highlight other key points.
The reciprocated romantic love symbolized by the pear tree is found to be unnecessary as Janie reaches her horizon at the end. The horizon reflects the state of happiness that Janie thought she could only reach through true love, but changes as she finds the strength to be happy with her independence. This message is important as it disproves the restricting status quo that women are dependent on men pushing for further equality between the
Atwood utilizes metaphor to convey Elaine’s constant search for sustainable, healthy, and meaningful structure in her youth.