Melinda’s journey throughout her first year of high school can be summed up in one word, silenced. She begins the school year in isolation, having spent the remainder of summer wrapped in her thoughts after she was taken advantage of by Andy Evans at an end of the summer party. This experience heavily impacts her freshman year, both through social encounters and mental blockages. She felt like she was taken control of, her identity no longer belonged to her, her body was not hers, but his. After the incident, Melinda secreted into her own mind, and her lifestyle was transformed into an isolated den, flunking out of her classes and separating herself from others. This change was pressured by the actions of Andy Evans, and it truly shows the controlling impact one person can have on another. In another story, Emily …show more content…
In the beginning of Melinda’s story, she has already been invaded with thoughts from the incident, and she is heavily affected physically and psychologically by Andy Evan’s control. This is shown substantially through her outward appearance and attitude in her new school. “I have entered high school with the wrong hair, the wrong clothes, the wrong attitude. And I don’t have anyone to sit with. I am Outcast” (Anderson 4). Similarly, in Emily Dickinson’s poem, the main character displays symbolism of being controlled and how it negatively affected her life. Dickinson states, “I'm ceded - I've stopped being Theirs / The name of They dropped upon my face” (lines 1-2). This connects back to Melinda in the sense that she has been rebranded by Andy Evans, she becomes a different person, Theirs. The significance of the second line indicates the unwillingness of Melinda to become the person she has, her individuality recaptured by fear and suppression of identity. As her