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What does the quote,“When people don't express themselves, they die one piece at a time,” from Laurie Halse Anderson's book Speak mean? What...

Mr. Freeman says that quotes on page 122 of Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak. Mr. Freeman is Melinda's art teacher and the one adult who seems to register that something significant and traumatic has happened to Melinda... something that needs to be expressed. Mr. Freeman realizes Melinda is slowly withering away and her lack of self-expression and inability to communicate are two major causes for Melinda's withering. Mr. Freeman attempts to use his class and...

Mr. Freeman says that quotes on page 122 of Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak. Mr. Freeman is Melinda's art teacher and the one adult who seems to register that something significant and traumatic has happened to Melinda... something that needs to be expressed. Mr. Freeman realizes Melinda is slowly withering away and her lack of self-expression and inability to communicate are two major causes for Melinda's withering. Mr. Freeman attempts to use his class and its assigned project (to artistically represent one thing over and over again over the course of the class— in Melinda's case, a tree) to crack open Melinda's hardened emotional exterior and to coax her out of her depressed stupor. The part of his speech following this quote is even more telling:



"You'd be shocked at how many adults are really dead inside—walking through their days with no idea who they are, just waiting for a heart attack or cancer or a Mack truck to come along and finish the job. It's the saddest thing I know."



Mr. Freeman doesn't want to see Melina fail or throw her life away on a passionless existence comprised only of suffering. 

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