Art in Speak

Being of the “science culture,” I decided to start my investigation on the significance of art in Laurie Anderson’s Speak with a definition of what art actually is. According to Webster’s dictionary, art is the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance; the class of objects subject to aesthetic criteria; a field, genre, or category or art; the principles or methods governing any craft or branch of learning; skill in conducting any human activity; a branch of learning or university study, esp. one of the fine arts or the humanities, as music, philosophy, or literature.
WHAT?! This definition stunned me. There is no mention whatsoever of emotions in this definition! There is nothing about the love for what you create. Nothing about the role of art as a portal for hidden feelings trapped in the body. Nothing about art as a friend or a dream turned into reality. Nothing about it as something that can be nothing or everything. I realized then that, in order to go into the reason for art and the way it contributed to Melinda’s life I had to throw out its definition. Like Melinda, I had to learn that art is not bound by social constraints. Defining art does not make it so. Society trapped Melinda and turned her into an outcast. It locked her soul into her body. With no way out, the soul ate away at the body until the situation became dangerous to Melinda’ physical and mental well-being. Through art, Melinda’s soul found its only escape. That way to escape is what saved Melinda’s life.
Melinda’s healing through art revolves mostly around her art project. In the beginning of the book, Melinda randomly picks a tree from the broken atlas her art teacher passed around. Her assignment is to artistically make that tree come alive. Although Melinda picks the tree by chance, Laurie Anderson apparently wanted to use the tree as a enveloping metaphor for Melinda’s internal and external struggle to deal with being raped.
The tree is a universal symbol for life and hope. In religion, Eve picked a fruit from the beautiful tree of life that she could not resist. Christians use the evergreen Christmas tree (a tree that never loses its leaves but remains green year-round) as a symbol for everlasting light and life. The needles point up to heaven and the roots rest firmly in the ground. Jews use the Hanukah Bush to represent their struggle through the “cold” times of their past and to remember the bush that God burned to show Moses his power over the Jewish people. Biologically, a tree gives life to every ecosystem. Nobody would be able to survive without trees to turn carbon dioxide into oxygen for animals to breathe. Trees also symbolize antiquity and strength, which is why knights and royalty engraved them onto their shields and crests.
In Speak, however, the tree represents Melinda’s internal death and her hope for an eventual rebirth. If taken care of, a log will sprout new roots and re-grow. Melinda needs to bring her own tree back to life. Melinda works with a linoleum log to carve her tree in art class. After being raped, her personality was hacked to shreds. As long as Melinda hid her rape from everybody her tree could not sprout roots and grow again. She cannot move on if she does not let go of the past. Throughout the entire book Melinda struggles to “bring it [the tree] to life” (78). Her tree constantly lacks dimension and uniqueness. It is always too simple, too bland, or to standard. The tree cannot live because Melinda is hiding all of her feelings. She cannot give life to something else if she does not really live herself. Furthermore, Melinda makes her sculpture out of a linoleum block, which physically is made out of wood dust and oil. Quite literally, Melinda has to take a block of wood dust and recreate a tree full of life. In doing so, she has to pick up the dust left from her past and re-fabricate a new life where she accepts what happened to her.
The tree is also physically empowering because Melinda was raped in the forest surrounded by trees. By building her own tree she is making a new niche for herself. She can leave the dark, haunting trees of that dreadful summer and live in the new, freshly sprouted saplings that she carved herself.
The tree symbol reappears throughout the entire book. For instance, one day Melinda decides to rake the leaves in the front yard. She tries to clear out the “dead leaves still clinging to the oak branches by the street" (167). Just like the dead leaves are still clinging onto the oak tree even though the tree no longer needs them, Melinda feels dead inside and desperately clings onto her past. At that time, Melinda’s dad comes out of the house and notices that the "branches on the left don't have any buds" (167). Later on, he realizes that one side of the tree is rotting from the inside. It has to be cut off or the entire tree will cave in. Melinda’s rape and her trauma from it parallel that rotting tree. Her bleeding lips, weight gain, dirty hair, broken fingernails, and baggy clothes signify her slow physical crumbling. If Melinda does not learn to accept what happened to her and move on then that pain and depressive state will rot the rest of her and ruin her life entirely. It has to be cut away or she will also collapse. Her desire to make her yard more beautiful by clearing out the dead leaves weaves perfectly with her constant yearning to find a way to make her art project “come to life” like her art teacher instructed and with her need to accept what happened to her and share her heavy pain with those around her.
In the end, Andy attacks Melinda again and she threatens to cut him with a shard of glass, Melinda finally faces her fears and her self-image can now slowly heal. When Andy has that shard of glass at his throat it is he whose "lips are paralyzed" (195). In this reversal of roles, Melinda shows Andy and herself that who she is still somewhere within her and that Andy can no loner hurt her. She has silenced him, just like he has silenced her. It is only after this event that Melinda can finally let her pain and frustration out and she does it through her art. Finally, Melinda is able to draw her tree for art class.
Melinda’s process of creating her final tree is also quite interesting. Mr. Freeman, her art teacher, assures her that “perfect trees don’t exist” (153) and that Melinda does not have to reach everybody’s standards if she cannot do so. Each tree is unique and so is each person. At last, Melinda accepts the fact that the rape was not her fault and that she cannot hide from her pain. She lashes that pain out onto her final drawing and with it lets go of her first tears. Melinda sees that her tree is now breathing. It has come alive and now so has she. She can come out of her closet. It is no longer a safe haven for her. She can face the reality of her situation. When observing her drawing, Melinda thinks, “one of the lower branches is sick…that branch better drop soon so it doesn’t kill the whole thing.” (194) Melinda inadvertently acknowledges the fact that the branch has to fall because it is only hurting the rest of the tree . She also has to drop the past and continue her life. The growing of the tree, and in turn her own growth to reach acceptance, is the best part of it all.
Also, Melinda’s relationship to Mr. Freeman and Ivy are also vital to her recovery. Mr. Freeman, opposite to Mr. Neck, is a sensitive and understanding teacher. Although his head is usually in the clouds or in his artwork during classes, Mr. Freeman turns out to be the only adult that Melinda can trust. He is the only one who actually takes the time to sit with Melinda, listen to her, and reassure her. He never lectures or yells at her like the other adults and he never expects anything from Melinda that she is not willing to give. In the end, it is Mr. Freeman who first hears about Melinda’s traumatic experience. Readers are left not knowing exactly what will happen to Melinda, but are reassured that if Mr. Freeman hears her story then there will be someone there to take care of her. Mr. Freeman’s name itself signifies freedom, self-determination, independence, and free expression; all of the characteristics that Melinda so desperately needs to find for herself. He is Melinda’s hero. He is the man who guides Melinda into finding art and her escape from her history.
Ivy, on the other hand, is Mr. Freeman’s teenage counterpart. While Mr. Freeman plays the role of Melinda’s only responsive adult, Ivy plays the part of her only conscientious peer. While all of Melinda’s other friends completely abandon her without really trying to figure out what happened, Ivy still talks to Melinda. At first, Ivy is like everybody else and tries to put up a wall between Melinda and herself. Yet, social pressures to be mean does not come naturally to Ivy and she is ultimately surprised and interested in Melinda’s artwork. Ivy, like Mr. Freeman, gives Melinda advice on art and life. She gives Melinda hope that things can one day get better and eventually even becomes the closest thing Melinda has to a friend.
Ivy’s name is also representative of her role in Melinda’s life. An ivy is a climbing or ground-creeping evergreen woody plant that scales up trees to grow. Ivy does not harm a tree, even though it may compete for ground nutrients and water to a small extent but it does significantly damage buildings and man-made architecture (like Ivy ignoring what her classmates are trying to do with Melinda.) The symbolism behind an ivy is based on the plant’s ability to thrive in the shade, cling to other things, and it being an evergreen. Ivy represents true love, faithfulness, and affection in marriage and friendship. Like other evergreens (such as the Christmas Tree) an ivy symbolizes eternal life and resurrection. It thrives on dead and dying trees. In Greek and Roman mythology, Osiris and Attis, two gods resurrected from the dead, are wreathed in ivy. Thus, to them, an ivy symbolizes that there is an immortal soul that lives even in a decaying body. Also, an ivy represents everlasting friendships because of its ability in interweave as it grows. Even more interestingly, an ivy is very strong and basically indestructible. If cut or hurt it will just grow its lost part and continue to climb its walls. For that reason it is a symbol of survival and fortitude.
When looked closely, Melinda’s friend Ivy is perfectly suited to her name. She is the only teenager who is still able to be faithful in a friendship. Even more so, Melinda mentions in the beginning of the book that she and Ivy were never really close. Only when Melinda becomes the “dying tree” does Ivy take a keen interest in her. Like the plant she is named after, Ivy lives off a decaying body, giving it the hope and life that it needs to survive. Ivy is Melinda’s source of development, renewal, bonding, friendship, and inspiration just like the ivy plant has always been in nature and in history. Ivy does not care what her other friends think of Melinda because she cannot be harmed. Unlike the vulnerable and very fragile Melinda, Ivy is indestructible. She lives in her art and in her being and does not care what anybody else thinks. Thus, she is the perfect counterpart to Melinda.
Melinda’s relationship to art also stems to her home. Throughout the entire book, there were very few instances in which Melinda got along with her overworked and bitter parents. They always refused to listen to her and were constantly punishing her as a way to solve problems. However, the only time Melinda does have a connection to her parents is when they see that she likes to draw and so they get her art supplies for Christmas. This touching moment is quickly lost when the parents begin arguing again. Even though Melinda is upset that she does not get to thank her parents for the surprisingly thoughtful present, it is the first time that she even thinks to tell her parents what happened. She might have even told them at that moment if they had not reverted back to their own selves and left the room arguing. Melinda might not have been able to tell her parents but getting her art supplies was the only time she even came close.