Meade offers a biographical reading of "Resume," linking it to one of Parker's suicide attempts while she was under the care of Dr. Alvan Barach, a New York cardiologist and psychotherapist.

As before, she tried to make light of her impulse to self-destruction, although this time psychiatric treatment made it harder to accomplish. In verse, she compiled a consumer's report for those contemplating suicide and rated the various methods of killing one's self: Razors, as she knew from experience, were painful, and drugs caused vomiting and cramps. Other methods she had not actually tested had to be dismissed on hearsay as hopelessly unreliable: Given the inadequacy of what was available to an aspiring suicide, Dorothy figured she might as well go on living. When "Resume" was published in The Conning Tower [F. P. A.'s column in the New York World newspaper], some people admired the way she had transformed a near-fatal experience into dark humor. As might be expected, Dr. Barach was not among them.