Who is Tracy Flick from Election: A Novel and what is their importance?

Tracy Flick, Election, is 'the mean girl' in this novel and the principal antagonist. At first she is painted as a spoiled rich girl that has no regard for anyone's feelings. She has tremendously good grades and has also had an affair with her English teacher (which got him fired). She flaunts the fact that she engaged in this activity. She is running against Paul for SGA President.

However, as the novel continues, the reader finds that most of what Tracy shows the world is a carefully constructed facade. She is not wealthy and lives in an apartment with her mother. They live there at the good graces of the school's janitor. Her dreams of going to Georgetown are only being realized, not because of her family's connections, but because of her grades and hard work. She is a character that does undergo a dramatic shift and change and in the end, the reader can see that she has grown up.