1. By: Farah Sabri, Aaron Bialecki, Pranshu Thakur, and Amelia Borchich
Tree symbolism
By: Farah Sabri, Aaron Bialecki, Pranshu Thakur, and Amelia Borchich  

2. Introduction of symbol
Chapter: Sanctuary
  - When Mr. Freeman presents the old globe to everyone in class, Melinda and the other students select a piece a paper that is completely different. She says, "Tree. Tree? It's too easy. I learned how to draw a tree in second grade"(12).
-  Melinda doesn't think, show any effort. She isn't open-minded to new ideas.
- When Melinda tries to grab another paper, Mr. Freeman says, "You just chose your destiny, you can't change that" (12). 
-  It is something that Melinda will do for the whole year. She can't just choose something else that’s easy and not challenging. Over time, Melinda will grow, and she will get better at drawing a tree. 
- After Melinda and everyone else selects a piece of paper, Mr. Freeman tosses to the students balls of clay, increases the volume of the radio, and say, "Welcome to the journey" (12).
- It shows that there are many forms of growing. A journey consists of events that show strengths people are good at, and weaknesses people, like Melinda, need to work on to achieve growth.

3. MEANING OF SYMBOL: Growth
Seeds:
- Melinda studies for her biology exam about seed growth. She says, “If the rose is picked, the plant grows another one. It needs to bloom to produce more seeds” (126). 
- When Melinda is cleaning out the leaves in her yard, she sees “Pale green shoots of something alive” that “have been struggling under the leaves” (166).
Tree drawing:
- When Melinda tries to draw a tree, she says, “ Two vertical lines for the trunk. Maybe some thick branches, and plenty of leaves to hide the mistake” (32). 
 - Mr. Freeman gives Melinda notes about the tree when he says, “Perfect trees don’t exist… Be the tree” (153).  
- Melinda looks further into Picasso’s cubism art that she could use with her tree. When Melinda uses cubism in her tree, Mr. Freeman thinks she’s “getting somewhere” (119). 

4. Climax
"It's hard to get the tree pictures off the wall without tearing them" (192).
- Remember past, but not dwell on it
- Taking them down, leads to growth
"...I'd like to keep some of my tree pictures and my turkey bone sculpture" (192).
- Leaves the rest for other people (becoming less selfish)
"...looking for a branch, a limb, something to hang onto" (195).
- Memories flash back, but it doesn’t stop her
- Uses the wood of sculpture to break mirror 
Here, trees show that Melinda uses the memory of the rape to help her grow from it.

5. THEME Series of examples from which a theme can be illustrated:
Melinda takes criticism for her tree in art class. Mr. Freeman says, "This looks like a tree, but is an average, ordinary, boring tree. Breathe life into it...nothing is perfect. Flaws are interesting" (153).
When Melinda is finishing her art project she accepts what happened to her and says, "IT happened. It wasn’t my fault. He hurt me. And I'm not going to let it kill me" (198).
When Melinda finally realizes how to make her tree, she says, "My tree is definitely breathing...roots knob out of the ground and the crown reaches for the sun, tall and healthy. The growth is the best part" (196).
Anderson's use of the symbol tree is to suggest that in order to grow, one needs to resolve inner turmoil acquired from the past, accepting inerasable mistakes in life and recognizing that it can never be perfect.