In the movie, Rachel is shown to not understand symbolism in Literature class. She even starts to question the teacher why people can't say what they mean to say. This in itself is ironically symbolism. It foreshadow that some people like Rachel may not understand subtlety, and sooner or later, Melinda will have to directly tell her she was raped.
There's also a Stealth Pun in the movie: Melinda literally had to spell it out for Rachael.
