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"'Tree.' Tree? It's too easy. I learned how to draw a tree in second grade. I reach in for another piece of paper. Mr. Freeman shakes his head. 'Ah-ah-ah,' he says 'you just chose your destiny, you can't change that'" (Anderson 12)
Melinda is stuck with the tree and that is her destiny, she can't change what happened but she can make something of it. Just as something happened with IT that Melinda can't change however she can make something happen with what she's got. The tree is symbolic to what happened with IT, neither can change but she can make the best of it.
"I've been painting watercolors of trees that have been hit by lightning. I try to paint them so they are nearly dead, but not totally" (Anderson 30-31)
The trees that Melinda is painting are geting struck y lightning. The lightning that striker her is all of the kids at school who make fun of her, and her ex-friends who now have decided to ignore her. She is also struck with other problems like how her grades are very poor and how she does not have a good relationship with her parents. Melinda and the tree are both getting hurt in some way that makes them feel horrible, but even in these bad conditions they are not completely dead
"Somehow I don't think Mr. Freeman is going to find much emotion in it. I don't find any." (Anderson 32)
Melinda isn't finding any life or emotion in her art work anymore. Mr. Freeman has been saying how your soul should be in your art and by not finding any emotion in her artwork the author is showing the readers how Melinda feels inside. As the artwork Melinda has no emotion inside of her anymore and becomes more and more trapped in her own body as she holds in the secret of what happened with IT.
“One picture is so dark that you can barely see the tree at all. (Anderson 31)”
The idea that you can barley see the tree symbolizes Melinda’s want to not be seen. It is shown that Melinda does not want to be seen because she has her own closet where she can go to be alone. The picture symbolizes the want to not be seen because the tree is so dark that it almost blends in with the background, just like Melinda is trying to do around her classmates.
“But when I try to carve it, it looks like a dead tree, toothpicks, a child’s drawing. I can’t bring it to life. I ‘d love to give it up. Quit. But I can’t think of anything else to do, so I keep chipping away at it. (Anderson 78)”
Melinda carving the linoleum block symbolizes her social status. Her status is failing just like her drawing, and she wants to give up, yet she keeps going because there is nothing else to do.