Plot SummaryMelinda Sordino went to a party with her friends in the summer before the freshman year of high school.
She felt suffocated in the party. She was drunk. She walked through the woods. Outside the woods a senior guy named Andy Evans raped her. She called the police, but she couldn’t tell anyone what happened because she was too scared.
The police broke up the party and everyone in the party got in trouble because of Melinda. She started at Merryweather High School. She was so alone and she felt depressed and confused because even her best friend, Rachel, left her. Melinda befriended with Heater, a new girl but Heater thought Melinda is a depressed person so she left Melinda too. When Melinda realized that Rachel, her ex-best friend, has a relationship with Andy, the guy that raped her, she decided to talk with Rachel to warn her.
Melinda told her why she called the police in the party but first Rachel didn’t believe her. Later in the prom, Rachel and Andy broke up because Rachel realized that Melinda said the truth. Andy attempted to rape Melinda again but this time Melinda screamed and protected herself.
What Andy did spread through the school. The students no longer blamed her. Finally, Melinda explained all story to her art teacher, Mr.
Freeman.CharacterizationProtagonist – Melinda Sordino – The story happens at Melinda’s freshman year of high school, Merryweather High School. She is the narrator of the book. Melinda has been raped in the previous summer of 9th grade by Andy Evans.
She is confused about her feelings that she thinks maybe it was her fault. Everyone thinks Melinda calls the cops by purpose which puts her under pressure. She begins to speak up when she realizes that Andy can harm others too which shows she is unselfish that she cares about other people. Melinda is cold and silent on the outside due to pressure on her.Antagonist – Andy Evans – He is a senior at Merryweather High School. Melinda is one of his victims of rape.
Melinda also calls him IT and Andy Beast. He is good looking and popular but he is malicious in inside. His date with Melinda’s ex-best friend, Rachel, make her speak up. When Andy tries to rape Melinda second time, she fights back and Andy gets caught. ConflictsCharacter vs. Character – Melinda Sordino and Andy Evans are against each other. Andy tries to rape Melinda physically. Melinda withstands to Andy and protects herself.
Character vs. Society – Melinda’s peers in her school think that she called the cops in the party on purpose. Melinda gets under pressure from her friends.
Character vs. Self – Melinda tries to make a choice between to say or not to say that she has been raped by Andy Evans. She is even not sure that it was not her fault.ClimaxClimax happens when Andy Evans tries to rape Melinda Sordino for second time in her hidden closet room.
This time Melinda finds the strength inside herself to oppose him and she defends herself with a shard of glass. Andy gets caught and Melinda’s friends realize the truth that she called the cops to protect herself for the first time.Literary DevicesMetaphor – “I stand in the center aisle of the auditorium, a wounded zebra in a National Geographic special, looking for someone, anyone, to sit next to” (Anderson 5).Melinda compares herself to a wounded zebra in a National Geographic special by saying one thing, herself, is the other thing, a wounded zebra.Simile – “Mr.
Freeman is ugly. Big old grasshopper body, like a stilt-walking circus guy. Nose like a credit card sunk between his eyes” (Anderson 10).Melinda compares Mr.
Freeman’s old grasshopper body to a stilt-walking circus guy and his nose to a credit card by using like.Personification – “All her clothes wait patiently on hangers, organized by type—skirts together, pants hanging by their cuffs, her sweaters stacked in plastic bags on shelves. The room screams Heather” (Anderson 33).The human quality of being patient is given to clothes and the human quality of screaming is given to Heather’s room.
