Introduction
Paul Zindel’s play, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds, is very much about a kind of despair. The primary character is Beatrice Hunsdorfer, a frustrated, angry, and emotionally disturbed mother who is fixated on the injustices of her past and her entire life. Bea’s hatred powerfully affects both her daughters, and Ruth seems to be on a path as tragic as her mother’s as she copes by adopting Bea’s strategies of cruelty and manipulation. Matilda, on the other hand, is different. She represents that there are choices no matter the circumstances, and she embodies how hope can survive, and even triumph, in the face of extreme fear and anger. It is Tillie’s deep love for science that enables this difference, even as that love is based on Tillie’s essentially strong character, which can see beyond the ugly realities. How Tillie’s spirit rises above her world is clearly seen in how she reacts to a threat from her sister, how her awareness of science informs her of how life can go badly wrong, and how that same love for science infuses her with great hope and joy.
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Discussion
Tillie’s ability to overcome the despair of her world and her family is not simple. She is not merely gifted with wisdom or maturity; instead, she has a growing awareness of how there is a “bigger picture,” no matter how focused Ruth and her mother are on everyday events. Faced with intense anger and dysfunction every day of her young life, she nonetheless develops a power to see beyond actions and words generated by the dysfunction, and this enables her to set herself apart from the pessimism and fear of the household. For example, when Ruth is brushing Tillie’s hair, she tells Tillie about their mother’s reputation in the school. It is a kind of sisterly bonding, but of a disturbed kind because Ruth wants Tillie to enjoy her own secondhand mockery of Beatrice.
As Tillie does not share this motive, and as Ruth wants Tillie’s rabbit, she threatens to tell their mother how the latest contact with the school from Bea has reinforced her own image as unstable. Both girls know very well how Bea would react to this further insult, and this is Ruth’s weapon. Before the actual blackmail, however, Tillie listens and understands on a level beyond Ruth: “Don’t tell mama, please. It doesn’t matter” (Zindel 33). It is then clear that Tillie has already developed a more expansive view of things. Even as she herself is often a victim of Bea’s cruelty, she does not want her to suffer more because she can make, or sense, the connection between the cruelty and extreme pain in Bea. In a very real sense, then, she is able to rise above any desire for revenge because this understanding is a kind of giving, which can only exist when there is a stronger character in play. It triumphs over fear, and the effects of fear, because it accepts all of it as sad weakness.
This ability of Tillie to see beyond the plain and ugly reality is very much a part of her fascination with science. In one of her monologues, Tillie refers to her understanding of science as not necessarily wonderful, despite her awe for what it can reveal: “My experiment has shown some of the strange effects radiation can produce….and how dangerous it can be if not handled correctly” (97). The last part of this statement is critical in seeing the nature of Tillie’s character and how she is able to “distance” herself from the dysfunction of her family. Science is for her a representation of life itself. This being the case, anything is possible and the most negative consequences are as likely as the most good that may happen. She recognizes, most of all, that causes have effects, so she has an awareness that her mother’s and sister’s behavior are, in a sense, not their fault or intent. They are fearful and they lash out, but this is not entirely a matter of choice. If radiation can distort and create the ugly, life may as well, and Tillie is then able to not be vulnerable to fear. She sees it as an effect of circumstances, as she comes to know that circumstances may be altered as science itself is conducted.
Lastly, Tillie’s power to triumph over the fear in her world is most powerfully represented by that innate love for science itself within her. This actually exists on several levels. To begin with, science givers her a sense of wonder that transforms the nature of life itself. In learning about radiation and atoms, Tillie is seeing that life is an unlimited process of creation, and she feels this on an emotional level: “In front of my eyes one part of the world was becoming another” (24). Clearly, it is not merely a case of atoms becoming different kinds of matter; it is for her about worlds being made possible, and this relates to how she views her own world. Because of what atoms may do, no world need ever stay the same; there are endless possibilities when choices are made, and that she herself has conducted the experiment reinforces that she has faith in her own power to make choices. There is as well the less direct meaning, in that, when this kind of change is always possible, there is no telling what may occur as life happens apart from choices made. Tillie then comprehends that nothing at all, bad or good, is constant, which gives her the knowledge that the fear of her mother and sister is a tragic waste. It exists because those women can see no other possibilities in the world of possibilities which Tillie sees as absolutely real.
Conclusion
Paul Zindel’s The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds is very much about victimization, and how victims create other victims. This is certainly the case with Bea and Ruth. Tillie, however, breaks the cycle because her nature, fueled by a profound love of science, simply cannot accept victimhood when it is plain the life itself is too endlessly varied to limit and trap people. This same love, deeply connected to her being, then enables her to see the misery of her family from a distance, and know that it is nothing more than blindness that so grips it in fear and anger. It is this ability that allows her to fully triumph over that dysfunction, and the play provides clear evidence of this. How Tillie’s nature rises above her world is seen in how she reacts to a threat from her sister, how her awareness of science informs her of how life, full of possibilities, can go badly wrong, and how that same love for science infuses her with great hope and joy.
- Zindel, Paul. The Effect of Gamma Rays nn Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. Print.
