Art Therapy in SPEAK novel

An Analysis of Art Therapy in Speak Healing Process revealed by Melinda as the Protagonist Character in Anderson’s novel SPEAK

Rape abuse phenomenon goes largely across the region. Report about Rape and Sexual Assault : RCC Fact Sheets about Rape and Sexual Assault : Rape Crisis Center Statistics, in 1990 rape rose faster than any other crime in the United States. The number of rapes reported to police exceeded 100,000 for the first time. It is estimated that the actual number of rapes was between 1.3 and 2 million, which makes the U.S. rape rate the world's highest. (Senate Judiciary Committee Study on Violence Against Women, March 1991)
While, the number of unreported rape cases is 83% of raped adolescents, 71.4% of raped young adults, and 68.4% of raped adults (Kilpatrick, 1990). For year following rape, 60 % of survivor experience Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and 16 % still suffer from emotional problem 15 years following the rape (HRS Rape Awareness Program, Tallahassee, FL 1987). These report shows the reader that the frequency of rape has the high rate, and get higher and higher recent years.
The victim of rape abuse would be better try to deal their pain with therapy technique, which called as healing process. In general, people who have been in traumatic condition, like rape, can never forget it. The entire people, child, youth, adult people, who have been in traumatic rape can never forget its disgrace. But, Healing process is one of the solution, although healing from traumatized rape is not easy thing and sometimes almost impossible. Since healing is an involved process that must involve all aspects of life and must handle the deepest places inside the victim. But, believe it, with healing process, the victim can involves a change in manner that changes their every aspect of life. With therapy and the right people around them, sometimes they are able to accept and healing it in periodically.
In today’s society, many therapies exist: art therapy, music therapy, poetry therapy, modeling, painting, theatre, and journal therapy. Art therapy, sometimes called creative arts therapy or expressive arts therapy, which define as a form of expressive therapy that uses art materials, such as paints, chalk and markers. The goal is to encourage people to express and understand emotions through artistic expression and through the creative process. For instance; Songs that make the survivor feel good as a woman are terrific, like Enya’s The Beautiful or Donna's Survivor Jukebox, where the listener can find more than 300 songs pertaining to rape, domestic violence and surviving or healing. Besides that, also Rhianna, who was also a survivor of sexual violence, in her journal stated that there was something safe and healing about writing, poetry, and the visual arts. She was also certified as a Poetry and Journal-Writing Therapist in the 90's and commenced on a Master's of Arts program in Counseling, integrating arts with traditional healing processes.
Based on the explanation above, the essay discusses about speaks healing process with art therapy through a novel. Realizing that these topics are carried much contribution in youth-adult life especially who get deep traumatic condition because of rape abuse, so there are many author written many works of arts, for instance; novel, which is voiced, critic and give many contribution in the female’s struggle for surviving from her rape because of pains. Anderson with her novel entitled Speak, the object of this essay, is a novel which clearest vividly this condition.
As depicted vividly in the novel “Speak” by Anderson, the writer has found the phenomenon related to the art therapy used in speak healing process revealed by the protagonist character. The theme is about rape and depression. It is tells the story of teenager female, named Melinda Sordino who eventual emergence as a rape victim. One night, she goes to a party with three other friends and because of get drink, she is raped by a senior, Andy Evans. After that accident, she has not been able to speak clearly. This abuse forces her into silence and radically changes her life. She would not speak and spends hours alone or working on her art project.
Steiner (1969), state that silence period viewed as a characteristic of humans. Silence viewed as the realization of deep emotions or embarrassments condition. It is used to maintain the secrets and distance with other people, and sometimes it is can be used as a form of social control also. Person, like Melinda, who has violated a social norm, like rape-victim, is treated with silence. In other word, the buried of speaking is to view another side of sexual violence and its impact on the lives of victims and survivors from rape.
According to the background of the essay above, the writer would like to analysis the phenomenon related with speak healing period by art therapy revealed by Melinda as the protagonist characters in Anderson’s novel Speak.
After finished reading the novel, the reader knows that Melinda, the protagonist character who suffer from childhood disgrace because of raped by her senior, have no idea how handling her bad experiences can be to tell others. During the next year she slowly recovers from her trauma of rape while being disliked by the entire school members. She contact with a few special people, the art teacher and a few students in her art class. With this condition, she finds a “safe place” in art class, with Mr. Freeman as the art tecaher.
Melinda’s healing process slowly begins when in the art-class, she is assigned to draw a tree that to make it represent something. Unintentionally she creates a tree that allows her mourning show through. Her art-teacher, Mr. Freeman, is the only person who encourages her and helps her to express herself. It is vividly describe from the beginning of the novel when Mr. Freeman tells the students in the class that his is

“Welcome to the only class that will teach you how to survive”…”Welcome to Art” (p.10).

The fact said that Mr. Freeman is right, in the end of the novel the same thing happened, his class is the only one class that make his student get survive from the pain. His class is the only one that in due course teaches Melinda how to survive. It is in his class that, Melinda is able to piece together into a coherent whole her fragmented self, which in roll finally gives her the bravery to speak.
During this lesson, Mr. Freeman makes Melinda draw a tree all semester surprisingly. Here, as the art teacher, he use the power of art therapy with Melinda, he ask her to draw trees in order to evaluate how she feel about herself at the moment. Theoretically, in art lesson the way in drawing and painting something can be carried or represent certain meaning. It is also represent the characteristic or the condition of the painter. Here, this point of view was used by Mr. Freeman to know what real happen to Melinda and through it, he would like to help Melinda survive from her tenderness.
The trees that Melinda draws throughout the year, as well as the trees she thinks about in her mind, represent how she feels about herself. Melinda begins by painting trees sthat have been hit by lightening and are nearly dead.

“For a solid week, ever since the pep rally, I’ve been painting watercolor of tress that have been hit by lightening, I try to paint them so they are nearly dead, but not toally” (p.30)

Through this scene, the teacher and the reader in general was know how the early Melinda’s psychological condition. But, in the end of the art-class, the form of drawing a tree that has both healthy new growth and birds in its branches, but old diseased branches too.
“… So I’m staying after school on the very, very last day for one last try at getting my tree right. …. “My tree is definitely breathing; little shallow breaths like it just shot up through the ground this morning. This one is not perfectly symmetrical. The bark is rough. I try to make it look as if initials had been carved in it a long time ago. One of the lower branches is sick. If this tree really lives someplace, that branch better drop soon, so it doesn’t kill the whole thing. Roots knob out of the ground and the crown reaches for the sun, tall, and healthy. The new growth is the best part.” (p.196).

This quotation from the novel p.196 is representing how Melinda’s concept of herself has been transformed throughout the year. She begins by feeling destroyed like the tree struck by lightening that she draws, but in the ends feeling that she will be able to deal with the experience of being raped and move on her life. She is symbolized a tree that has diseased branched, but then healthy growth, and then can continue to the live. By starting drawing the tree in Mr. Freeman class and the time would show what is better for herself, it is give more freedom especially for herself. In fact through art therapy in art class, Melinda helps herself in peeping out the ''window'' of art from her “inner prison”.
In deed, the goal of healing process is peacefulness, a letting go of the anger and pain, an accepting of a new life, a delight in the small things of life. For getting or for forgetting the rape abuse at all is possible, but at least by healing process, the survivor like Melinda will not be thinking about it as much. As time goes by, she might not be thinking about it at all and can letting it to start a new life.

REFERENCES
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak, New York: Puffin, 1999.
Anonymous, 2005. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson - MonkeyNotes by PinkMonkey.com
(Taken from http://monkeynote.stores.yahoo.net/, on 6/16/2008 1:44:00 PM)
Anonymous, 2005, Art Therapy. (Taken from http://www.cozy-corner.com/art/art_therapy.htm, on 6/16/2008 1:25:00 PM)
Anonymouss, 2007. Stop Violence Against Women A project by The Advocates for Human (Taken from http://www.stopvaw.org/Prevalence_of_Sexual_Assault.html, on 6/16/2008 12:43:31 PM)
Anonymouss, 2007. Information about Rape and Sexual Assault : RCC Fact Sheets about Rape and Sexual Assault : Rape Crisis Center Statistics. (Taken from http://www.danecountyrcc.com/information/index.php?category_id=26&subcategory_id=19, on 6/17/2008 8:49:02 AM)
Steiner, 1996, Language and Silence. (taken from http://www.ciil-ebooks.net/html/silent/ch4.htm, last modified on 4/20/2008 4:22:40 PM)