….Silence….
Think about feeling trapped…if you talk you are shot down and all around you nobody cares. People pretend to care, a few actually do. Your parents? Do they want to help? But you ignore them. You can’t talk about what happened because something bad will happen if you do. You hide and avoid people-- find special hiding spots. This is how Melinda is in the book, Speak. Melinda went to a party and something horrible happened to her. She tries to avoid everyone, thinking that they well hurt her except for Heather who was her friend for awhile. Melinda figured out how to work her feelings into art and made one outstanding sculpture. So it shows that anyone can help you through a tough time.
To begin with, Melinda used to have friends. Heather was Melinda’s new friend for the year; well that is what she thought. Heather blew off Melinda, “Poor Heather. There are no Hallmark cards for breaking up with friends.” Heather left Melinda for almost the rest of the year and the next time they talked Heather needed Melinda. Melinda stood up for herself for once and said that she wouldn’t help Heather. Melinda found out how to stand up for herself at that moment.
Another important thing is how Melinda avoids everyone. In Speak Melinda gets invited to a party again because the basketball team won. Melinda was too scared to go to the party she was invited to. She has two sides to herself, "Two carefully watches the bushes along the sidewalk for a lurking bogeyman or worse." The other side of her wanted to go to the party, “Get a life. It was just pizza.”
In addition to her split personaltiy is Melinda and her artwork. She does a lot of artwork with Mr. Freeman, the art teacher. He taught Melinda how to express herself and speak through art, "I see a girl caught in the remains of a holiday gone bad, with her flesh picked off day after day as the carcass dries out." These words were expressed by Mr. Freeman about one sculpture Melinda made. Melinda likes art and made a true friend in that class; her name is Ivy. Melinda and Ivy slowly became friends each both liking art, finding something they liked together. Melinda finds out how to speak through art without having to actually speak.
Finally, Melinda has learned more from Mr. Freeman than anyone else in the story. He helps Melinda through tough times in Speak. Melinda finally comes out with everything and gets respect from everybody that hated her. Mr. Freeman helps Melinda more than she knows and her parents kind of make it worse. So even if one person can’t help you try to find someone that can.
Art Piece
Back in time many people enjoyed the sight of animals for art. The time is 1700’s and it was common for animals to be in art. In the art piece I chose to write about was a lion. They were mainly used as a festive table ornament. Ornament clocks were not the best at keeping time because of the shapes and different textures. Timekeeping was always a secondary importance to figure clocks because of the way they looked. The clocks with animals made were very popular in the 1700’s in Europe.
This art piece is exquisite because of the way it looks. The detail is amazing I would like to own that piece of art. It has amazing detail to every part of it. The lion has texture throughout the whole body and the tail has detail to it. The piece is made of cooper, brass, and iron.
