The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2017

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Symbols & Motifs

Ghosts

The women are referred to frequently as “ghostly” in appearance. This takes on many meanings throughout the book. First, the glow of the radium on their skin and clothes gives the dial-painters a dazzling yet eerie appearance. As they walk home in the dark, observers can see the residue of their work and how stubborn and hard to remove the radium powder is. Second, the nickname of “ghost girls” alludes to an anticipated death. The women are, in a way, already ghosts because their fates are sealed by the radium long before the women begin to feel the effects.

Much like how a ghost is thought to outlast the body of a person and remain undead for a long time, the radium also persists. Radium’s half-life of 1600 years implies that its “ghost” will remain for centuries to come.

Darkness and Light

The book’s subtitle, “The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women,” is the most obvious example of this motif. The story is dark—grim, gruesome, and unsettling—while the women shine both metaphorically and literally from the radium paint. In so naming this book, Moore also uplifts the women for their “light”: their sense of justice, persistence, and their individual passions, while emphasizing the injustice and “darkness” of their story. Moore also writes of the “light of justice” (443) flooding into the courtroom when the final verdict is given.

Another form of light is the glow of the dial-painters’ bodies from the radium; the radium emits its own strange light, but this is far more sinister than the “pure” lights of justice and of innocence. It is only in the dark that the radium’s light appears and its extent assessed.

Weakness and Strength

The book features a weak versus strong conflict, where poor workers stand up to a formidable enemy in the form of the radium corporations. Even as their bodies weaken, the dial-painters show remarkable strength of mind and grow stronger in their resolve to seek justice. The companies show strength through their legal team and influence on public policy and government, but they demonstrate weak morals.

The Cause of Death

When each dial-painter dies, their cause of death is noted on their death certificate. Moore includes the cause of death for many of the dial-painters, starting with Mollie, whose official cause of death is syphilis. Then, Ella Cruse’s cause of death is listed as streptococcic poisoning. In the Epilogue, the cause of death of many women is listed as sarcoma and other cancers, which indicates the many deaths from radium poisoning. The cause of death is significant because it officializes radium as the culprit, allowing for a genuine assessment of the scale of the damage. It marks an official recognition of radium as a dangerous substance and lends credence to what the dial-painters knew for so long before the authorities recognized it or believed them.