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The main setting of the story is at Merryweather High School in Ney. All of the main conflicts take place place in the school. This is also the place where Melinda faces all of her problems.

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Melinda: She is the main character of the story who got rapped by Andy Evans. She is also the outcast of the school, and has no friends besides Heather until the end of the story.
Heather from Ohio: She is a new student who moved from Ohio. Heather tries to be friends with Melinda, and tries to get her involved in extra circulars.
Ivy: She first stops speaking to Melinda, but slowly sees that Melinda is suffering, and becomes her friend once again.
Mr. Freeman: He is the art teacher, and is one of the only teachers who actually cares about Melinda.
Andy Evans: Also known as IT, he is the one who has rapped Melinda at the party, and is the reason for all of her pain. He has also abused many of there girls, but never been stopped until Melinda.
David Petrakis: He is Melinda's lab partner and is the only person in the whole school who will actually talk to her and stand up for her.

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I would give this book a 4 out of 5 star rating. I thought that it was really interesting and made me want to keep reading. The only reason why It isn't 5 out of 5 is because sometimes the way the book is written is confusing.

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1. Person vs. Self: Melinda isolates herself from everyone, and won't let anyone in to help her with her problems. The conflict is resolved when Melinda finally accepts the fact that she was raped, and she talks to her friends about it.
2. Person vs. Person: Melinda was raped by Andy Evans. The conflict is resolved by Melinda confronting Andy and making it so that he can no longer hurt any other girls.

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I believe that the theme is "don't ever keep things bottled up, and don't isolate yourself." Melinda was very quite and kept things bottled up to herself when things got very rough for her. She isolated herself from everyone that cared because of her getting raped.

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In the book Speak, Melinda starts out as a freshman going to Merryweather High School. During the summer Melinda called the police on a party that caused a lot of people including her friends to get into trouble. So, at the beginning of the school year all she had for a friend was a new girl named Heather. Heather really wanted Melinda to join groups with her and try to become popular. While Heather tried really hard with her efforts to get Melinda involved in school activities she couldn't because Melinda had a huge secret on her shoulders. Melinda was so isolated that she even turned an old janitor closet into her secret little hiding place. The only place where Melinda feels as if she is accepted in school is in her art class with Mr. Freeman. She has to work on a year long project that involves her different interpretations of a tree. Melinda talks about a person she sees in the hallway sometimes, and refers to him as IT. IT's name is Andy Evans and he is the reason for all of Melinda's problems. When Melinda was at the party Andy rapped her. Every time that Melinda sees him in the hall, he antagonizes her and makes her scared. It got so bad that she starts to skip full days of school. When her family and counselor try to talk to her she says nothing. Melinda went through months of painful silence. During this silence she would bite her lip, and bite her nails to the point there they would bleed. Finally, after many months of all the pain she finally accepted the fact that Andy did in fact rape her at the party last summer. The first person she tells is her former friend Rachel because she is afraid that Andy may do the same to her, but Rachel doesn't believe her. After telling someone Melinda starts to open up more and starts doing yard work, and really pursuing in her art work. From her old friend Ivy being in the same class, Melinda tries to become friends with her again and eventually they do. At the end of the school year Melinda feels as if everything is finally starting to look up, but then Andy confronts her in the janitor closet that Melinda normally hangs out in. He tried to make her do things, but Melinda finally stood up for herself and stopped him. After standing up to Andy, Melinda found out that she isn't the only one that Andy has raped. At the end of the year Melinda presents her final tree, and tells Mr. Freeman about everything that has happened to her.

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I believe that the genre is realistic fiction because everything that happens to Melinda could be something that could happen to any teenage girl now.