Zorrie
Zorrie is herself very much a symbol of the hardest-working group of individuals in history: women. Men have become the historical heroes and enjoyed the patriarchal benefits, but without the seven-days-a-week expectations placed upon wives, mothers, slaves, and working girls American would have stalled dead in its track before the Mayflower had even made it halfway across the ocean. Zorrie’s aunt instills a work ethic in her which she spiritedly tries to maintain until her dying days and Zorrie’s work becomes a testament to the prices paid and the benefits unenjoyed of women in America and around the world.
The Radium Dial Company
Zorrie’s first real paying job comes with an offer that, unbeknownst to her or her co-workers, is designed to killed her. The job—based on historical fact—involves using paint laced with radium for the purpose of making clocks glow in the dark. That the women working themselves also glow in the dark seems like a bonus to them rather than a foreboding message of doom sent from the future. The work that comes with a built-in death potential for devastating harm is thus a symbol of all the work expected of women that come with built-in risk, from birthing child to cooking with newfangled appliances sending dangerous amounts of gas and electricity into the home for use without any proper instruction.
Luna Powder
Luna powder is the radium-infused power that helps to give the “ghost girls” working at the clock factory that special “glow” which makes them definitely stand out from the crowd. Hmm, a cosmetic application that gives women a glow which ultimately serves to destroy their beauty and their lives? What on earth could Luna powder possibly symbolize?
The Assistant Supervisor
The assistant supervisor at the clock company is described as being hard of hearing resulting from a fever in his childhood who his “full of ideas to combat the dangers of the world.” The irony here is that he is the company’s biggest fan of radium, putting it in his Coke and using dinnerware made with the radioactive element. The tragically non-ironic symbolism here is that this man perfectly represents the resistance to corporate regulation intended to protect workers and customers at the risk of the supposed benefits which stem from completely unregulated capitalism.
Caves
Caves become an important symbol that are forwarded in both figurative and literal language. Somewhat late in the novel, Zorrie is utterly fascinated by a TV show about the caverns running beneath Indiana and Kentucky. This literal incarnation leads to Zorrie closing her eyes and imagining being “lost in thought” within a cave of her own. Opal is especially significant in turning up the heat on the symbolism as passes this idea of being able to shut your eyes and create “a cave all your own making.”
