Gamma Rays On Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds: A Literary Analysis

Henry Brookes Adams once said, “A teacher affects eternity; he/she can never know where his/her influence stops.” Many troubled students have discovered great things about themselves or the world with the help of a teacher/mentor. Stories such as Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson and The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds by Paul Zindel, use schools as a setting for life-changing discoveries. The protagonists in both of these books, Melinda (Speak) and Tillie (The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds) go through personal troubles that are solved by an important teacher/mentor. Even though each girl is excluded at school for different reasons, both Melinda and Tillie break through their barriers by finding an important teacher/mentor and discover critical life lessons and find hope through certain academic courses.
Melinda is afraid to tell anybody about the rape because she does not think that anybody will believe her and she feels that it is her fault. Because Andy Evans antagonizes her, Melinda starts to ditch school to avoid him. Melinda’s parents and her counselor try to get Melinda to talk about why she is not performing well in school, but she does not speak up about her rape. In The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds by Paul Zindel, Matilda "Tillie" Hunsdorfer is antagonized constantly by her narcissistic, single mother, Beatrice, for her love of science. Beatrice plans to destroy any opportunity of success for Tillie due to her own lack of success. Tillie enters the science fair with an experiment about raising Marigold seeds that are exposed to