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Denial is the act of being denied by others or it can also be defined as a refusal to satisfy a request, the request can be as small as asking someone if they can talk to you or requesting for help.

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Melinda - She is the main character in the book and goes to Merryweather High school. Other characters in the book are introduced through her as in her perspective about how she feels about them. She gets raped by a high-school senior during a party before she enters high-school. Everyone dislikes her because of her calling 911 at the party.

Rachel - Used to be Melinda's best friend since elementary school. She dislikes Melinda throughout the school year.

Heather - She is the new kid who moves in from Ohio. She makes an awkward relationship with Melinda in the beginning of the year and later decides that she doesn't want to talk to Melinda anymore.

Mr.Freeman - He is Melinda's favorite person in the school as the art teacher. He makes sure Melinda has an A in art throughout the whole school year and is known as the coolest teacher as he makes class really fun.

Melinda's Parents - Melinda's mom works at a clothing store in the downtown, she is a practical and busy woman. Melinda's dad sells insurance, Melinda sees his job as a simple task and that he is wasting his time.

Andy Evans - He is the villain of the book and the person who raped Melinda. He is a high school senior and also dates Rachel at the end of the year.

David Petrakis - He is Melinda's social studies and biology partner and is the most nicest person to him.

Ivy - She used to be in a school clan called Plain Jane with Melinda, Nicole and Rachel. She was not at the party so she has no reason to dislike Melinda like everyone else.

Nicole - She was also part of the Plain Jane school clan and used to be one of Melinda's former friends. She doesn't dislike Melinda as much and is one of the nicer people.

Mr.Neck - He is the social studies teacher of Melinda, he is portrayed as the silly person who abuses his authority or privilege.

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"I close my eyes, this is what I've been dreading. As we leave the last stop, I am the only person sitting alone" (Anderson 3).

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"She's creepy. What's wrong with her lips? it looks like she's got a disease or something" (Anderson 45).

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"I see a few friends ... people I used to think were my friends ... but they look away" (Anderson 8)

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This quote shows that Melinda has no friends to talk to in her new year of high school in the bus after it leaves the last stop. Everyone that used to be her friends showed denial towards her trying to talk to them.

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This is said by Siobhan who used to dislike Melinda before she got to know her. In this scene she judges Melinda by her appearance and shows denial in a very mean way.

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This shows that people who used to be Melinda's friends do not accept her anymore and show denial because of the incident at the party before high-school.

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In the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character named Melinda goes to Merryweather high school and is a freshman. During summer break before the 1st high school year, Melinda attends a party where she is drunk and gets raped by a  senior named Andy Evans. Because of safety purposes, Melinda calls the cops and describes what happens to her. As the next school year starts, everyone begins to hate her and and not accept her anymore. This causes denial through the whole beginning of the school year and the book. One of her best friends ever in her life named Rachel starts to hate her and ignore her. Making friends in school and socializing became very hard for her and she started living in a closet. She goes into state of depression and a very sad life emotionally, socially and also academically. The only class she is good at is Art because of her skills and the teacher Mr.Freeman. She slowly starts making friends and recovering friends from before who disliked her and this caused her to speak up. Rachel starts to date Andy Evans and Melinda finds out about this and knows that this is her time to take revenge on him. She informs everyone that he has sexually assaulted many girls in the school and needs to be punished. This moment makes Melinda speak up and reveal her problems to people and open up about everything. Overall, Melinda goes from Extreme denial and back to normal after recovering her happy and joyful personality from before by opening and speaking up.

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Melinda is really the only person that we see in the book who faces Denial from peers and we also see her recover strongly. She gets affected by denial in a disturbing way, it completely changes how she hangs out around people, makes friends, gets grades and acts in the society. First off, she stays inside of a closet because she is tired of no one accepting her.  It causes her to cut her own wrist with metal wires and makes her think about suicide. She bites her own lips in a way that makes them bleed. Denial in this book was very strong towards Melinda and caused her to break down and turn into a different person. She has all grades less than a B and only 1 A in Art. And at the end of course, it causes her to be very anti-social and not even try to make friends but just hope that someday, someone will come to her and ask her to be their friend.  Overall, Denial affected Melinda in a very strong way and completely changed the way she behaved in the society.

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Melinda is really the only person that we see in the book who faces Denial from peers and we also see her recover strongly. She gets affected by denial in a disturbing way, it completely changes how she hangs out around people, makes friends, gets grades and acts in the society. First off, she stays inside of a closet because she is tired of no one accepting her.  It causes her to cut her own wrist with metal wires and makes her think about suicide. She bites her own lips in a way that makes them bleed. Denial in this book was very strong towards Melinda and caused her to break down and turn into a different person. She has all grades less than a B and only 1 A in Art. And at the end of course, it causes her to be very anti-social and not even try to make friends but just hope that someday, someone will come to her and ask her to be their friend.  Overall, Denial affected Melinda in a very strong way and completely changed the way she behaved in the society.