Man In The Moon Marigolds Analysis

English literature: the effect of gamma rays on man-in-the-moon marigolds

Beatrice:
 Bitter, strident and alcoholic
 evidence: “she takes a drink from a glass of whiskey” (54)
 inference: Beatrice indulges herself with alcohol.
 Disappointed with life
 evidence: “you see, everybody, I spent today taking stock of my life and I’ve come up with zero. I added up all the separate departments and the total reads up zero… zero zero zero….” (55)
 inference: the fact that Beatrice describes her life as numerous zeros suggest that she is disappointed with life, and has achieved nothing out of it.
 evidence: “half-life! You want to know what a half-life is like, just ask me. You’re looking at the original half-life! I got stuck with
Evidences:
1. P: when ruth sees that the house is in a mess, she did not bother to do anything about it.
E: “There’s so much junk here and it’s driving me crazy” (14)

Tillie is a climber.
 Climbers are people that are dedicated to lifelong ascent. Regardless of their background, advantages or disadvantages, misfortune or good fortune, they continue to ascent. Climbers are possibly thinkers, never allowing age, gender, race, physical or mental disability, or any other obstacle get in the way of the ascent.
 Similarly, Tillie is very driven and determined to pursue her dreams and to continue with her passion for Science; despite the many times that her mother repeatedly discouraged her, Tillie did not take those rude comments to heart and continued to follow her dreams.
Evidences:
1. P: Tillie does science experiments, showing that she ties to pursue her dreams and continues to let her passion for science burn.
E: “she used them to attach a paper straw to a milk bottle with a balloon over it, and it was supposed to tell if it was going to rain” (43)
2. P: despite the hurtful comments her mother said, Tillie still manage to win in the science
Evidence: “HI NANNY-HOW ARE YOU, HONEY? HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO GO ON A LONG TRIP?” (55) and has a low income of “fifty dollars a week”. (31) this shows that she has a low intelligence quotient, which in turns result in her poor job performance and low income. Besides, Beatrice also doesn’t have much of an achievement in life. Evidence: “you see, everybody, I spent today taking stock of my life and I’ve come up with zero. I added up all the separate departments and the total reads up zero… zero zero zero….” (55) Ruth has poor school results. Evidence: Tillie has a high level of intelligence quotient. Looking from the fact that she has good results in school, was personally chosen by Mr. Berg the principle to participate in the science fair, and lastly, clinching the first position in the since fair, has showed her potential. The evidences are “Dr. Berg picked her himself!” (58) and “MAMA! MAMA! she won!” (90) both said by Ruth. This showed Tillie’s high intelligence quotient as she is able to achieve outstanding awards in life, and receive the recognition of her principle as