Entry 5 (page 81-100) After being put under greater parental control, Melinda, alone in her room, decides to “open up a paper clip and scratch it across the inside of [her] left wrist” (87). She then describes what she is doing as “pitiful” (87). Melinda’s mother, seeing Melinda’s wrist the next morning, states that “suicide is for cowards” (88). Anderson makes it clear that suicide is not a solution rather a cowardly way to escape reality. The author’s stance is clearly against suicide and she persuades her readers to hold the same position as well. Finishing with the act, Melinda describes “ it looking like [she] arm-wrestled a rosebush” (87). Emphasizing the true ugliness of suicide, Anderson wants readers to understand that the scars