Although Melinda doesn’t know it, her choice of a poster of Maya Angelou to cover her own reflection in her janitor’s closet is an appropriate one. A famous African American writer, Angelou writes eloquently about her own rape in the memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird sings. Throughout the year, Melinda imagines the poster as an empowering force, such as when it urges her to tell Rachel the truth about Andy. In the end, Melinda actually rips through the poster in order to shatter the mirror behind it to use as a weapon against Andy. The action is a deeply symbolic one, as the poster has literally allowed her to use a piece of herself—in the form of the jagged edge of a mirror—to fight back against her rapist.