42 pages • 1 hour read
Clare B. Dunkle, Elena DunkleElena Vanishing
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | YA | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 5-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of mental illness (including psychosis), disordered eating (anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa), self-harm, and rape.
Elena spends two weeks in the children’s hospital and is then taken to an eating disorder treatment center (Drew Center), where she continues to tell herself that she doesn’t belong and doesn’t have an eating disorder. The intake nurse asks Elena lots of questions about her past and her eating habits, and Elena is happy to answer most of them (and proud to say she once went 21 days consuming nothing but juice) until she is asked about sexual assault. When asked if she has ever experienced it, Elena refuses to answer, telling the nurse it’s none of her business.
Elena is taken to her first meal, where she sits with several other girls, women, and one man. Everyone is expected to finish their meal and dessert, and if they don’t, they have to take meal replacements by feeding tube instead. A girl at the table starts to cry when she can’t bring herself to finish her cake, and Elena tries to take it from her to help her out; both girls end up in trouble for sharing 
