Reflection
•The book is about a young girl who starts her freshmen
year of high school, her name is Melinda.
When Melinda goes to school, she is very quite and shy as though she does not want to be noticed. There is a sense from the beginning
that something has happened to her
and that she feels out of place. We find out in the third marking period that
at the end of the summer before
she enters high school, Melinda attends a party. At the party, she gets drunk and unfortunately is raped. Shocked
and scared, she calls the police and runs
out of the party. She tells no one about her rape, and the other students
including her best friends, turn
against her for getting them in trouble. By the time school starts, she is completely alone. She withdraws more and
more everyday, rarely talking, ignoring
assignments, cuts classes and becoming more estranged from the world around her. Few people talk to her and are able to
connect; one that does is her art teacher, Mr. Freemen. He works with her to help her express her
emotions through art. At the end of the
school year when Melinda is coming to terms with her rape is when the same upperclassman that raped her at the party attacks her
again. At this point something within
Melinda snaps and repels her attacker. Her defeat of him gives her closure and
she becomes a person
again.