Out of my Mind
By: Sharon M. Draper Presentation By: Aria Van De Hei
Summary:
In the book Out of my Mind, by Sharon M. Draper, a young girl named Melody lives in her home with her mom, her dad, and her little sister Penny. Melody is 11 years old with a photographic memory and can’t talk. Therefore, she has no way of showing any emotions, what shes thinking, or how smart she is. Melody is the smartest person in her entire school, but nobody knows that or believes she is even capable of learning.
All though her doctors believe she’s incapable of learning, her mom does and enrolls her in to a nice, caring school that they mainly treat everyone the same. She then takes a pretest to really see what she knows. Therefore they find out Melody is the smartest kid in her entire school. Melody becomes part of a school program for smart kids. She has to face her problems of not being able to talk while competing with other schools. Unexpectedly they win the state competition as team, meaning they move on to Washington D.C. In the meantime, Melody finds out she going to be a big sister. Now Melody's life is crazy until one day everything is resolved.
First Person
For example Melody, the narrator says, "I laughed and laughed." It shows Melody is the one talking throughout the book. It also says, "I have so many words I cant let out."
Characterization
One way other characters impact or show more about Melody, is when her doctor tells her she is stupid and incapable of learning. The doctor says, "I know that Melody is severely brain-damaged and profoundly retarded." However Melody doesn't let that stop her, it shows Melody is a confident girl.
Melody's physical appearance is different than most peoples because Melody rides around in her wheelchair. When Melody first gets into the "normal school" everyone stares at her as she rolls into the classroom. They also look at her differently, but again she doesn't let her stop her from learning the same way as anyone else.
Theme(s)
Another theme could be treat everyone equally. That impacts the story by everyone treats Melody differently. Melody gets treated like she knows nothing, but if she would get treated the same they would know how smart she is. For example, when trying out for the competition the teacher didn't believe that Melody got all the answers right, but other kids got answers wrong and the teacher still believed those kids. This shows that treating people differently can hurt other people.
Figurative Language
(Metaphor)
"The snowman leaned like a tree on a windy day", that shows how the snowman actually was leaning and how if it feel over the whole thing would be destroyed. (Simile)
"The blue fish will run away", this shows the characteristics of the fish. Melody says this when her fish fell out of the bowl and he was trying to get away. (Personification)
"Shes talking louder than a lion roaring", this shows how loud Mrs.V is really talking. Melody uses this to show how she doesn't think Mrs. V should talk that loud. (Sensory Language: Hearing)
"Penny fell like a tree in a bad storm", this shows how fast and hard Penny fell when Melody was sitting right there. Melody also described it as a hurricane hitting. (Imagery/Simile)