Speak: Melinda Character Analysis

Death feared by all, symbolized time after time. It is no surprise Melinda finds a way to cope with the her feeling through her tree project she was assigned in art class- at the beginning of the novel. Melinda portrays progress with her situation and eventually finds a solution learning from as her tree drawings finalizes.
Art is used to express one's state of mind, feelings and much more, and Melinda is a huge participant of this. She begins the story drawing the tree and feeling frustration she can not accomplish a task she thought was simple. This reflects her wanting to tell her secret, since it seems as an easy thing to do, and her incapability of doing so. She continues to draw them, all of them showing trees being shot by lightning

or dying, placing emphasize on her suffering. She seems as an individual seeking recognition through her sketches. In other words, they are cries for help, yet she rails off from this once Mr.Freeman reaches out to her. "You did a good job with that Cubist sketch," Mr.Freeman says.¨ I don't know what to say.¨Melinda thinks, ¨We pass a dead dog. It doesn't have a collar. "I'm seeing a lot of growth in your work. You are learning more than you know." She obviously changes the topic once Mr.Freeman wants to open her up in order to learn what is on her mind. At the end of the story she starts drawing the trees in a positive aspect and even though they were not the best of drawing she feels satisfied with them. Connoting that she is satisfied with her current state of mind.
Trees are symbols for Life, Strength, Thriving and are symbolized by Melinda as life and death. She goes through different stages post trauma, meanwhile she also incorporates different activities correlating with trees. Other than drawing Melinda starts gardening, which shows her escaping her shell she build around her in result of her horrific event. In addition, she classifies her previous personality as ¨seed¨ and her whole experience are the branches of the tree. ¨Can you buy me some seeds?¨Melinda says,¨Flower seeds?¨ She finds comfort in nature ways, the process of seeing and attending a plant as it grows just as she does. Finally she figures out the only way to escape is to let go of the death branches and open room for new ones to grow. "Those branches were long dead from disease. All plants are like that. By cutting off the damage, you make it possible for the tree to grow again," Melinda says. She releases all her resentment that has been poisoning her by holding a glass shard to the neck of the guy behind it all as he attempted to rape her once again. The tables turned and Andy was the one left speechless.
At the end Melinda finally finds the courage to share her story and free herself of her secret. ¨The tears dissolve the last block of ice in my throat.¨ Melinda says,¨I feel the frozen stillness melt down through the inside of me, dripping shards of ice that vanish in a puddle of sunlight on the stained floor. Words float up.¨