Do you think that you can relate to Melinda and how she copes with her isolation?

I would tell people straight up about how I feel. And not have even held it in at all. Say that it did happen to me and I chose to hold it all in. I know that I would not be the same person at all. It would be constantly eating at me begging me to let it out. I would say she handles it about the same as I do. Manly because I can’t continue to be passive or isolate myself or hiding/ stuffing my emotions along with the truth for long periods of time.

Yes I think I would be able to confide with my mom and my dad as well. Because I would not want any of it to turn into anger at all. But if I was to put myself in her shoes then I know that it would be very hard for me to cope or even deal with my emotions. Because in my eyes she is not handling her stress in a healthy way at all. I know if I do that then I know that I will have more of a shorter hotter temper. I mean just thinking about it is really putting me in her shoes. I know for sure that if that had happened to me that I would not be the same person I was before I had been raped. Mainly because it would be really hard for me to cope with the stress and or anger that I had been choosing tom hold in for so long. I think one of the main reasons of why I feel like this is mainly because I don’t think that I would ever be able to live with myself after I had been raped heck I would not even be the same person I don’t think at all. Do you think that you would be able to cope with it and let it out or be isolated and not tell anyone about it at all and hold it all in? What would you do? Would you do the same thing? Why? Or why not?

Breath life into art for perfection is nonexistent

I believe that Mr. Freeman was meaning for Melinda to relax and to stop trying to create the perfect mirror image of a tree for they don’t exist. He wants her to draw without thinking and to let her emotions catch hold of her imagination for a while. Mr. Freeman wants her to stop acting like every thing she does is worthless and he wants her to leave the mistakes and turn them into something exiting and different. Mr. Freeman is trying to teach her that trees are not strait and that every tree is different from the next.

How Melinda can apply it to her life is that she can stop hiding what happened to her and tell people about it. Melinda can stop living in fear of Andy Evans raping other girls. How Melinda can put what Mr. Freeman said into her art is that she can stop erasing what she sees as a mistake and turn it into a piece of art. Melinda can draw the way that her hand takes her and allow her emotions to come to life through her art. Melinda can draw her being raped through the eyes of a tree. She can learn to be free of all tear full experiences.

Melinda's Friendships

I think Melinda really doesn’t have a good friendship with David. They really never talk. It seems like they are starting to talk a little bit more now then they use to. If they started hanging out more they would have a better friendship. Melinda and David’s friendship doesn’t mean as much to her as her and heather’s friendship did. Melinda and heather didn’t have a good friend ship, but it was a better friendship. They actually hung out more. They were more friends then her and David. I don’t think David is pretending to like her like Heather did. He is more of a friend.. Heather only came to Melinda or wanted to be her friend when she wanted something. David is a positive influence on Melinda because he goes to school all the time and he is a really good student. He could help her get through High School. I think she shouldn’t even worry about heather anymore. She doesn’t need to be her friend. She just has to tell people what happened so they will understand why she called the cops at the party. She just has to start over and make new friends.

I'm Like Melinda in Some Ways

I would handle things differently Like if I’m in her place than I will speak up more and I would tell my parents how I feel also if I got rape then I will just tell them what happened even though they don’t believe me and I would speak my mind out to them even though they don’t want to hear my side of the story and I will do the same to the adults like I’m like Melinda she will keep it all in side in her Intel she explode and I’m like her I can’t handle any more then I will start Speaking my mind out to them it can be worsted some times I will say the wrong thing then it will wet worsted for me if I speak my mind out to much so I can be like Melinda in some ways like if my mom doesn’t believe me what I say and do so I will keep it all in for a week then when One of my sister or brother say some thing about me it’s not true then I will start going off on them then I will get in trouble by my mom then every time I speak up to my mom she will tell me to be quiet and she don’t believe What I say so I just stay quiet Intel something it’s not true then I will speak up.

Compare and Contrast Melinda With Me

Well, Melinda’s ninth grade experience was different from mine and she got raped and I didn’t and I have the empathy for her because I can feel what she feels about getting raped and I am extremely sorry for saying she got raped but, that is life and I hate Andy Evans because he reminds me of myself before I got in the group home and I think that Rachel was my girlfriend in my life and I am Sorry that Rachel might get her heart broken by Andy when he tells her that he raped Melinda and she will probably slap him in the face and Melinda is a great women to get that she was raped off her chest so, they can take care of what Andy did to Melinda and he should get arrested for what he did to Melinda because I got arrested for almost the same thing


Andy is a totally douche baggish and he is a creep and he is a total weirdo and I hope that I am never going to turn out with Andy and he is such a d bag and no one can change that from my point of view and that is what I think of Andy when he is locked up he is done for.

Why do you think Melinda chose to draw a tree struck by lightning?

Why I think that she is drawing a tree being struck by lightning is because she is depressed and she thinks that everyone should die because she is really crazy and she is just not being what she is made for in life she is a weird and extremely crazy, she just needs to be in a psych ward and eventually she might end up in prison if she eventually kills someone and I think that she is eventually going to speak up to her parents and principal and guidance counselor and say she was raped and put Andy Evans in prison because that is where he belongs and eventually tell Emily that she was raped by her boyfriend.

Emily will eventually break up with Andy Evans and Melinda will tell her teachers that she was raped by Andy Evans and they will watch out for him when he is trying to found her and maybe try to kill her, but she is going to have the whole school on her side and he will be expelled and wont be able to go to her house and she will eventually try to be a great student again. She will try to tell all her teachers, principal, guidance counselor, and even her parents that she is was raped and she is a great person that she is going to tell every one that she was raped and everything is back to normal.

Do you think Melinda is all alone?

   I think that she realizes that she is alone. But what I don’t get is she has been alone ever since she had been raped. I think that it shows her that Heather could have just been using her for what she has. And it shows this all through out the whole book.

  It means that she needs to stop being so passive and start telling people what has really happened to her at that party. Because if she doesn’t stop being passive then I don’t think she will be able to ever look at her self the same way ever again or even be assertive as well. I think it means that she was just using her. Because it shows that Heather was just using her. One good example of this I think would be that that one Martha was making fun of Melinda and she didn’t even do anything she just let it all go as if nothing happened at all. I think that it shows it because who would want a friend that just says what you want to hear and does the complete opposite of what they tell you. And it shows that she really never ever wanted to be her true friend at all.

Friend's Don't Last

            What Melinda realizes when her friendship with Heather ends is that Heather was the only person that she felt close to. She realized that she was never Heathers friend and that Heather was using her to join the Marthas. She realized that Heather wanted friends who she can relate to, friends that act just like her and joke around. What the end of their friendship means to Melinda is that she is now completely alone and uncared for. The end of the relationship means that now Melinda is open for humiliation because now Heater can’t say that Melinda is her friend. Melinda learns that Heather cares more about how she is labeled that the social life of the only person who cared about her in the beginning. Melinda learns that friends don’t last for as long as she was hoping.

            What the end of their friendship means to Melinda is that she has no one who cares about her. Melinda now realizes that she truly needs Heather and that she is in huge desperation. It means the end of what social life she thought she had left. It now means that Melinda is the only person who has no friends in the school. 

Melinda's hard days at school

        Melinda’s parents think the reason why she is doing so badly in school is because of the people at the school. The principal and the counselor think it’s because she has no friends. I think the meeting with her parents and the school helped her a lot. If she keeps on having meetings with the school and talks to them more I think it will help. So far she is doing well by going to all of her classes. She is working hard to get back on track. If she talks more it will probably help her with her social problems. If she told them what happened at the party it will help her a lot.

     Melinda should just tell her parents and I think it will help her out a lot. The more time she keeps it to herself the harder its going to be for her to make friends. If she doesn’t want to tell them in words then she should draw a picture and show them that way. It would be easier for her to tell them even though she doesn’t want to tell them. If she lets someone know she would have a less hard time going to school. She would have her grades go up.

I think that the relationship that Heather and Melinda had was very important to Melinda. The reason why is, that they were both alone, with no friends, and they both didn’t know what is people like to see. So when Melinda needed to talk to someone she would turn to the only person she talks to which are Heather. So when it came down to them breaking their friendship, Melinda felt like she could not do anything because that was the only person she could talk to. So apparently Heather was not a true friend if she left Melinda for The Martha’s. So what I think that Heather was just doing is that she was using Melinda so she would not be alone and wait until she could get into a group.

Not Speaking

Well I think that her parents thinks that Melinda is not speaking is not speaking is because they don’t ask her what is wrong also they are not home that much to ask how is she so I think that Melinda doesn’t think that her parents don’t care what she does and I think the principal also the counselor thinks that Melinda is going through a lot because the counselor ask Melinda’s father if there going through marriage problems then Melinda’s dad got quiet so the counselor understand why Melinda is so quiet in school now with Melinda well I think the meeting kinda  help her because the Principal and the counselor knows something what go’s on at home so Melinda feels kinda better that someone knows what go’s at home.

Do Friendships Last Forever?

Melinda only has one truly real friend and the friends name is Heather. Melinda always wonders why Heather would want to be her friend. Melinda believes that Heather has more potential then her. She believes that Heather is a good friend but deep down inside if her she believes that Heather is to cool to be her friend.

It was valentines day and she and Heather were talking and it didn’t surprise Melinda what Heather was saying to her.  Heather was telling Melinda that she felt like she could not handle being her friend any more because Melinda is sad,depessed and just plain out not fun to be around. Later in the day Melinda is walking to her locker when she realizes that some of the lockers have valentines day letters on them as she kept going down the lockers she noticed that there was one on her locker. She got embarrassed and furious so she hurried and put her books in her locker and ran to class and the whole class hour she stared to wonder who  had givin her the valentine. When class was over she went to her locker and got the note and opened it. It was from Heather she was telling her thanks for taking it so cool and then she gave back the bracelet that Melinda gave to her. And if I was Melinda I would just realize that from what she did that she was never a real good friend and I would try my best to deal with life without her because she is not worth it and that she will never be  and I would try my best to ignore the fact that I will be seeing her every day at school.

The qualities that make a good teacher and student

The thing that makes a good teacher wants to teach loving his or her job. A good teacher doesn’t care much about the money. Well does need the money to survive in life to have money for gas to get to school, to eat, to pay rent. But a good teacher wants to share his or her knowledge with others. Good teachers take the time to explain things till the student gets it. Good teachers have patients with students. Good teachers show a good example for others. In away we are all teachers because there are always people learning from us. Like my son is always learning from me on what I do and say. Like if I teach him anger or show anger torus him than he will learn how to be angry with others, if I teach my son to be kind to others than he will be kind to others. Now what makes a good student is almost the same as what makes a good teacher. A good student has to be willing to learn. Has to be a really good listener the reason why is because if you don’t listen you can’t learn. I hate when students don’t listen at times and think that they know it all. Like when they only have half of the answer and they get mad at the teacher when they tell them they are wrong on half of the answer. You see that there is a bad student not listening. I say sit your ass down and listen. 

Speak

How the closet reflects Melinda’s mental state is that she has no friends and would like to be left alone by others for the time being.  She sets it up so that it reflects who she is. She covers up the mirror because she doesn’t seem to like her self. She puts up a picture that the librarian gave her over the mirror. The picture is that of an author by the name of Maya Angelou. It is funny because Melinda sais that Maya must have been a great author for the school bored to banned one of her books. It makes me feel that she is defiant when it comes school.

I think that she is happy to have found the closet is because she now has a place where she can go to get away from every thing that is making her feel discouraged. It is her own little sanctuary and her only friend at times. It is a place where no one will expect to find her in an old janitor’s closet. She is happy because now instead of going home she can go to the closet and read, do homework, or sleep, after all her parents did tell her to stay after school to get help from her teachers. 

Speak

I think Melinda parents are different because they don’t love each  and Melinda is confuse by how her parents are like her mom she there  for Melinda she listens to Melinda how she feels also her mom is there for her  every time she needs her  and with her dad she doesen’t like him because he has an acohol Problem  and he doesen’t treat her like his daughder and he leaves her so Melinda Trust’s her mom more then her dad  so her mom is in her life more  

Speak

Melinda goes with her parents to their work and finds out a couple stuff. One is that her mommy has to put in more work at her job then her daddy. Her mom, who is a clothing manager, is in charge of making sure the store sells, that everyone is doing their job, and that everything is in order. Her dad, which is a insurance sales men, does not do as much work as her mom so Melinda gets kinda pissed off. Melinda realizes that she would rather kick back with her dad then do a lot of work with her mom. She has sympathy for her mother because of that but she really does not look. I think her parents are going to get divorced because they work so late.

Who is Melinda going to connect to?

I think that she is going to connect to Mr. Freeman because she is quiet and she is a Imaginer because she is very sarcastic and she likes art and she still will do anything for Mr. Freeman because he sounds like an awesome teacher because she and her classmates can use their imagination she can also be with a great substitute like she is with hair woman because she hates her because she is a weirdo and she is just weird because she is like a blonde and she doesn’t like her English because she think that she is insane and she hates her gym teacher too because she hates that she has a great free-throw shot and her gym teachers loves that Melinda has a great free-throw shot because she takes her time that she is going to get an A if she is the designated free-throw shooter.   

I think that she is going to like him because he likes to use his imagination and she is just going to be a great student in Mr. Freeman class because he is just an awesome teacher because if I was in his class I would love to be in my imagination, so I think that she is going to connect with Mr. Freeman because he is like an awesome teacher just to get an awesome teacher like him

Speak

Melinda and her parents aren’t doing well I think. She thinks her parents would have got a divorce if she wasn’t born. I don’t know why her parents would do that.  When Melinda went to work with her mother.  She just had to stay down in the basement.  Then the next she went with her dad. And she had to lick a butt load of envolopes. She was mad she had  to do that. She also cut her tounge. She likes her dads work more thou. All her dad does is talk on the phone and goes out to lunch and shes just in the basement and she has to eat her lunch down their to. I would rather go to my moms work. Atleast im ot in the basement all day licking envolopes. Or if I were her I go hang with my friends but she dotn have any. But I think when Melinda moves out her parents will get a divorce. Because if her dad stays out all night and doesn’t stay home with his wife. Melinda’s mom also comes home at 2 in the morning and who knows what she was doing she could have been drinking and driving or  doing drugs.

Melinda and Heather’s friendship.

        Melinda and heather have a strange friendship. I don’t think it’s a true friendship. For one reason when the girls were being mean she didn’t do anything to defend Melinda. When they were hitting Melinda Heather just acted like she didn’t notice anything going on. But when the girls weren’t around Heather she went up to Melinda and said sorry. If she was actually her friend she would of said something to the girls or tried to stop them when they started being mean to her. I think heather really does like Melinda but doesn’t really want anyone to know that she likes her. She doesn’t want to be disliked just because she hangs out with the girl that calls the cops at parties.

    Melinda chooses to be friends with Heather because she has nobody else to talk to and Heather is the only girl that will talk to her. If Melinda’s old friend would talk to her she probably wouldn’t be friends with Heather. I think at first heather just became friends with Melinda because she felt bad for her. But after awhile she starts too really like her but just doesn’t want to admit it.

Are Her Parents Similar

Well I think that they are similar. Mainly because she now understands that she has sympathy for her mother. I also think that it is also similar because her dad has to work at a post office or somewhere like that. And her mom also works somewhere like that as well.

        

         I think that she sympathizes with her mother more. Because while working with her father she then finds out that her dad can goof off while working at work. While her mother has to go through all of this trouble at work to get and or to make money.

         I think it impacts her. Mainly because it could make her feel down and depressed and like life isn’t worth living any more at all. Mainly because it could remind her about her getting raped at that dumb party. I know that if I had an opportunity to go to a party and had that risk of being raped then I can tell you right now that I would not go to that party at all. Mainly because I don’t think that I would even be able to live with my self at all. Because if I had to I would be thinking about killing my self a lot or most of the time. I don’t even think that any one would be able to live with themselves after an incident like that has occurred. Would you be able to live with your self? Why or why not?

        

         If you had a good opportunity to go to a really awesome party and knew that a lot of your best friends were going to be there but had to think about the risk of being raped would you go why or why not? I can tell you right now that I would not be able to live with my self at all.

Melinda's First Day School

I think Melinda will get a long with her art teacher because Melinda will communicate with Mr. Freedman Melinda asked questions and Mr. Freedman tells the class they have to pick a globe and it will help them and I think it will help Melinda to make better friends and help her to open up to people and start talking to people also make friends while getting to know other teenagers her own age also feel comfortable around the school

            With Mr. Neck she will never get along with him because every time Melinda goes some where he’ll will stop her in the hall then he will ask her were she’s going and she doesn’t have a hall pass so she doesn’t like Mr. Neck because he’s snoring to her and she doesn’t get along with teachers and students also she’s doesn’t like teachers telling her what to do and Mr. Neck is one of them I already know she’s not gonna get along with him

Relationships

I think heather and Melinda have an ok relationship. They can get better. Freinds should be mean to there other friends. Like how heather made Melinda cry. Friends have to be good to each other. Also friends have to be there for each other and always have there back

.

            Melinda and Heather  don’t really have an ok relationship. The reason why Melinda lost all her friends is because she called the cops at a party. At the party she was raped. That’s a good reason to call the the cops but no one knows that she was raped. To me that party sounded pretty bad. Like there was drugs and liquor there. Some people got arrested because Melinda call the cops. If I was Melinda I would of told people that she had a reason to call the cops. But her friends hate her for that. They wont even look at her. If they do look at her they call her names or glair at her like she’s a freak. But I think in the future her and heather will end up being good friends. Maybe she will get more friends to. Or her old friends will for give her.

Melinda’s first year in High School.

    I would describe Melinda as a very shy person. I think hat Melinda is nervous about high school. It seems like she is unlikeable. I think she is worrying to much about her fitting in. if she just calms down and stops worrying about what people think about her she will get by in school. The reason she is unlikeable is because over the summer she called the cops at a party. She should have told someone in the first place.

     Her friends should at least give her a chance to explain what happened and why she called the cops. What I think she should do is go up to one of the girls and try and talk to them. If she tried that maybe that would help. She could talk to one of the counselors at her school. It would probably help her get through the drama at school. Maybe if she tried to talk to her friend Heather and see if she can help her talk to the girls. She should stop thinking about what she wants to do and just do it. The more she waits to try and make friends the harder its going to be for her in the future.

Speak

Since Melinda has been in the school she only has one friend. The only person that Melinda has talked to would be this one new girl named heather. Heather has barely moved into town from Ohio. Melinda and heather’s relationship is a good friendship I think. I think that Melinda and heather’s friendship is actually a good friendship. I think that their friendship is a good one because they started hanging out a lot.

            Melinda has seen that she has to get a friend after what happened in the bathroom when Rachel ignored her. Rachel used to be one of Melinda’s best friends until the end of summer when they say she called the cops at a party, after that Melinda told herself that she needs to get a friend. The only person Melinda has actually has talked to all the time she has been at that school would be this girl named heather because heather is new and does not know what happened last summer, so that’s why Melinda chooses heather as a friend. I think that heather chooses Melinda as a friend so she at least has a friend to talk to in school and hangout.

Melinda

   Well I would describe her as some one that has low self worth. Mainly because she had been raped at a party. I can only imagine how much it could hurt or how much affect it could have on a lady after being raped. I know that I’d feel like life isn’t worth living any more especially if my friends wouldn’t even talk nor look at me the same any more and all they know is a lie and not the full story. And I would also be really angry. Because I would feel like they don’t even know who I am any more or if I even exist at all either.

 I think that she is like able. Because she seems to be cool at least to me and it is just my opinion. I mean mostly because it is understandable that she had gotten raped. But it doesn’t necessaserally make her a bad person at all in the first place. I don’t know what I would do if I had gotten raped at a party. I mean I would feel like crap. Mainly because my friends would judge me a lot more based off of that one little piece of information that they know of. And I think I would also feel like going and committing suicide .Because I would feel way depressed a whole lot of the time as well as way emotional