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Water, Ice, and Melting
Just as water and ice symbolize how dead and frozen Melinda feels, warmth and sunlight represent moments in which she feels as if she might be alive inside after all. As winter turns to spring, and Melinda begins to move past her trauma, she spends more and more time outside, a shift that represents her re-engagement with the world around her. Because of her deep identification with trees and plants, warmth and light are especially important to Melinda because they allow plants to grow and thrive. It is also significant that the art room, Melinda’s refuge throughout the year, is the warmest, lightest place in school. Finally, when Andy attempts to rape Melinda for a second time in her closet, he does so with the light on (in contrast to the night when he raped her at the party). Light is a force of enlightenment and truth – it reveals – and Andy’s attempt to assault Melinda reveals the truth about him to the whole school.
Warmth and Sunlight Quotes in Speak
The Speak quotes below all refer to the symbol of Warmth and Sunlight. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Part 2, Chapter 8
Quotes
Applesmell soaks the air. One time when I was little, my parents took me to an orchard. Daddy set me high in an apple tree. It was like falling up into a storybook, yummy and red and leaf and the branch not shaking a bit. Bees bumbled through the air, so stuffed with apple they couldn’t be bothered to sting me. The sun warmed my hair, and a wind pushed my mother into my father’s arms, and all the apple-picking parents and children smiled for a long, long minute.
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Part 3, Chapter 19
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Slush is frozen over. People say that winter lasts forever, but it’s because they obsess over the thermometer. North in the mountains, the maple syrup is trickling. Brave geese punch through the thin ice left on the lake. Underground, pale seeds roll over in their sleep. Starting to get restless. Starting to dream green.
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Part 4, Chapter 22
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I crouch by the trunk, my fingers stroking the bark, seeking a Braille code, a clue, a message on how to come back to life after my long undersnow dormancy. I have survived. I am here. Confused, screwed up, but here. So, how can I find my way? Is there a chain saw of the soul, an ax I can take to my memories or fears? I dig my fingers into the dirt and squeeze. A small, clean part of me waits to warm and burst through the surface. Some quiet Melindagirl I haven’t seen in months. That is the seed I will care for.
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Part 4, Chapter 26
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IT happened. There is no avoiding it, no forgetting. No running away, or flying, or burying, or hiding. Andy Evans raped me in August when I was drunk and too young to know what was happening. It wasn’t my fault. He hurt me. It wasn’t my fault. And I’m not going to let it kill me. I can grow.
I look at my homely sketch. It doesn’t need anything. Even through the river in my eyes I can see that. It isn’t perfect and that makes it just right.
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“You’ve been through a lot, haven’t you?”
The tears dissolve the last block of ice in my throat. 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.
Me: “Let me tell you about it.”
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Get the entire Speak LitChart as a printable PDF.
Warmth and Sunlight Symbol Timeline in Speak
The timeline below shows where the symbol Warmth and Sunlight appears in Speak. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1, Chapter 4: Sanctuary
...her art teacher Mr. Freeman is friendly and open-minded; his classroom, meanwhile, is full of warmth and light. Even the radio is playing Melinda’s “favorite station.” A dark spot, however, is...
(full context)
Part 2, Chapter 8: Peeled and Cored
...apple tree orchard with her parents. She remembers her father holding her mother, and the warmth of the sun on her hair. To the dismay of David, she bites her apple,...
(full context)
Part 2, Chapter 14: Coloring Outside the Lines
...strong old oak with a wide scarred trunk” and leaves that reach up to the sun. Although she can imagine the tree perfectly, she thinks that the trees she carves look...
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Part 3, Chapter 3: Escape
...could shop with her mother without talking to her. She sits in a shaft of sunlight, taking off her winter clothes and imagining that she is a bird. Real birds sing...
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Part 4, Chapter 14: Real Spring
Melinda reports that it is May at last, and that it’s finally stopped raining—the sun is out, and the weather warm. On a Saturday, with her mom at work and...
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...They both look at the plants in the yard, and as a cloud covers the sun, Melinda shivers. He points out that the tree in their yard is sick, and will...
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Part 4, Chapter 22: Pruning
On a warm and sunny Saturday morning, Melinda watches as arborists come to cure the sick tree outside...
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...into the dirt, she imagines a “small, clean part of me” that is waiting “to warm and burst through the surface.” She imagines that her old self is like a seed...
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Part 4, Chapter 23: Prowling
...gardening for the entire afternoon. Her mother and father are impressed, and because of the warm night, the family eats together on the patio without a single fight.
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Part 4, Chapter 25: Prey
On a warm day in algebra class, Melinda realizes with a start that she doesn’t want to hide...
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