Thursday, October 21, 2010

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson --- Pt. 1

Pgs. 1-68.

Mel? Maybe? We aren't really sure what the main character's name is yet. It's her first day back at the school, all her friends have ditched her and there are hints thrown around at some sort of catastropic party. You don't know anything about her, unless you count that she was part of the Plain Jane clique for a while. Now, she is all alone except for the new girl that doesn't know about what happened over the summer.

I find it really weird that her school is debating over mascots. First, they were the Trojans. Then, the Devils. Third, the Tigers. Now, they are changing it again! What does this say about the book? I don't know if she is trying to create sybolism through it by showing that high school is the place where identity is found. It would coincide nicely with the clique theme that seems to be in almost every section.

I like the art teacher though. It's easy to see that Mel is going to do great in this class. The object she got as her project center, the tree, is very easy to recogonize as a symbol. The tree grows...She'll grow. The tree blosoms in it's own time, so will she blosom in her time.

Lastly, she has no relationship with her parents. I'm not sure if this is a major theme of this story, but I'm not sure I like it. I can't see myself as someone without a relationship with my parents.

So far.... I like her sarcasm, but I don't like her.

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