Really? Yes Really.

Finally. Yes, we have finally finished those confounded in class discussions. As you probably guessed, I’m not a huge fan of the small group discussions. Anyways, I actually found this one a bit more productive than usual, most of us did our share of talking and we actually touched on some fairly out-of-the-box connections to the overall story. We discussed a case similar to Melinda’s, the main difference being that this poor girl didn’t have such a happy ending. Not to say Melinda’s had a happy ending, but it was much better than this girl’s. In short, the case similar to Melinda’s was the one of a girl in Texas, raped by an upperclassman like Melinda, but, unlike Melinda, she told the police what happened and was ridiculed, humiliated, and hurt because the police didn’t believe her (and the football guys ran away shooting and/or throwing stuff at the cops). It took this girl nearly commiting suicide for the police to notice and take a closer look.

Ouch. This made me cringe, and it made my classmates pretty up-in-arms about the whole deal. Even more so than usual up-in-arms-ness most people at ASTI seem to have. First I explained the whole deal with the Texas cheerleader and we linked it in various ways to Melinda’s story. It was a pretty productive compare-and-contrast, what Melinda did that the other girl didn’t and vice versa, etc. etc. etc. But, unfortunately the conversation turned to the same old “why didn’t she talk?!?!” thing again.

And in the spirit of finally being done with the book, I’ll add some of my own thoughts and reflections in the few words I have left to get my point across. I honestly had a hard time reading this book for a second time, though I’m not completely sure why. It might have something to do with how such a little book (less than 200 pages) can convey so much pain and loss and sorrow. It really isn’t a book I’d suggest to people any younger than high-school age... it’s pretty dark. The back of the book actually says something about it being “darkly funny”. I find nothing funny in this book, just the suffering of a girl that really doesn’t need to suffer.