Evidence Of Things Unseen Summary

Marianne Wiggins’s Evidence of Things Unseen explores the transformation Ray Foster undertakes with his various experiences with science. Fos identifies himself as a phenomenologist, and he involves himself with bioluminescence. Fos created his own x-ray machine to better understand the inner workings of the human body. His passion to discover the invisible enabled him to fall in love with Opal. Fos informed Opal of all things science and their importance to life. When his family had to move from their house, the government recruited him to work at the Oak Ridge Facility as a photographer to keep track of progress throughout the stages of creating the Atomic Bomb (Wiggins 6-320). Throughout his experiences with science, he witnessed the positives

and negatives that science produced, and he realized science is not benefiting society as he had hoped. Fos’s main regret is that his involvement with science created more destruction than benefits because he held the belief that science bettered the world.
Unbeknownst to Fos, his x-ray machine changed his life both for the better and the worse because of its uniqueness and lethality. Once Opal revealed how she fixed his truck, Fos revealed his x-ray machine, and it mesmerized opal (Wiggins 32). Opal grew up with only her father and experienced very little of what the world has to offer, so she was shocked to see what her bones looked like. Since Fos showed Opal one of the invisible aspects of life, she became intrigued with Fos and wanted to experience more unique experiences with him. After their marriage, they traveled on the weekends to county fairs throughout Tennessee to display the x-ray machine, and Fos used the machine on Opal to show the spectators her bones (Wiggins 86). These weekly trips allowed Fos to embrace his love of science as well as spend time with his beloved wife. He held the belief that science could be used as a means to educate the world and bring people together. Unfortunately, Fos realized the danger of having Opal demonstrate the x-ray machine when they began working at Oak Ridge. Bud Overmarker revealed to Fos that Opal had radiation poisoning, but the workers could not find any leaks around the facility (Wiggins 286-292). Fos came to the conclusion that his mighty x-ray machine had deadly consequences on his wife. After talking with Bud, he had to sit down to fully comprehend how his beloved science could have harmed Opal because he had an idea that people benefited people instead of hurting people (Wiggins 304). He began to realize that his energetic nature for science could have lethal results because he failed to ponder the question: “what could go wrong?”. While his x-ray machine allowed him to explore the unseen and spend time with his wife, it inevitably led to Opal’s death with the large amounts of radiation interaction.
Coincidentally, Fos’s expertise with phenomenology allowed him to acquire a job when his life seemed to become depressing. Fos and Opal have recently closed their business, and Flash was running from the law (Wiggins 192-193). In addition, Early had left the farm land once his wife and babies had died; therefore, Fos and Opal were left alone on a decent size of land with no experience of farming whatsoever (Wiggins 199). He began to feel overwhelmed without having Flash and Early and his family. Unfortunately, Fos did not express his building emotions at all (Wiggins 199). Two gentlemen appear asking for Fos; they offer Fos a job with the Office of Rural Electrification (Wiggins 207). Fos peaked their interest because he has history with technical scientific aspects and has the ability to fix and create tools. Eventually, the office of Rural Electrification combined with other offices to form the Tennessee Valley Authority, and Fos expected science would improve the lives of people. The TVA established numerous dams on and near the Tennessee River, but the TVA utilized 1,129,000 acres and moved thousands of people from their farm lands (Wiggins 246). Although the TVA had a goal of improving life for the rural population, but the TVA had to morph the land for their own good and change the life of thousands of families. Fos also experienced the consequence of the Tennessee Valley Authority because two ladies from the Department of Removal and Relocation informed him his land was beneath the high water lands (Wiggins 259). Fos and Opal became distraught due to the unfortunate news because that meant Opal’s family members had to be removed from their graves on the hill. The TVA wanted the rural area to prosper, but it was not successful in its endeavor: “But electric power alone was not enough to stop the transformation of America's farm communities. Rural electrification did not halt the continuing migration of rural people from the country to the city” (“TVA: Electricity for All”). The TVA took advantage of being a government agency because they were greedy with the lands and forced people to move. Although science helped to improve the standard of living in rural areas, very few people enjoyed the benefits because most people had to move from their homes. Although initially Fos liked the fact that science helped to improve life in the rural areas, he realized using science to help people caused more harm than good, and that bothered him dearly.
While at the Oak Ridge Facility, Fos observed how science could be used for evil and how people react to the production of the Atomic Bomb.

When the news surfaced of the atomic bomb, Fos noticed how different people responded to the creation of the atomic bomb. Fos would agree with Mian’s opinion that the only thing missing is “the aroused understanding and insistence of the people of the United States and the world to demand an end to the nuclear weapons” (Mian 10). As news surfaces of the dropping of the Atomic Bomb, Janet proclaims “Can you imagine what this does for everyone’s careers who worked on it?” (Wiggins 313). Although she is excited for her own future, she is unaware of the impact the bomb has on the Japanese community; many of them do not have a future now. Whereas Fos acknowledges the severity of the consequences of the creation of the Atomic Bomb: “make a goddam killing weapon” (Wiggins 315). Although he does not fully understand the inner workings of the bomb, he sees the catastrophic outcome it produces. He is engulfed with rage at the thought that scientists used science as a means of causing destruction instead of solving problems for humanity. Fos also understood why they kept the bomb a secret: “They didn’t give us a warning at Pearl Harbor” (Wiggins 313). Although Fos did not agree with the creation and dropping of the bomb, he understood the bomb acted as a retaliation and a last push to end the war. Once Fos realized the danger of his x-ray machine, he could better assess the implications of what science produced. People will have various responses to a certain situation, but people need to have a complete understanding of the pros and cons if they want to make a

difference.
Ray Foster incorporated science into everything during his life, but towards the end, he realized he held a misconception throughout his life. Initially, his energetic nature for science enabled him to offer assistance during World War One, but the chemical warfare damaged his eyes. His pursuit for the unseen drove him to create an x-ray machine to see human bones, but the radiation from the machine caused him and Opal to obtain radiation poisoning. His association with the Tennessee Valley Authority introduced electricity to rural areas, but it forced bodies to be removed from their graves, people to move to the city, and permanent flooding in valleys. Although Fos started to feel science letting him down constantly, the opportunity at Oak Ridge helped reignite his passion for science: “In the early 1940s another, better opportunity seems to fulfill the family's faith in both scientific progress and the American dream: a good job and comfortable housing at Site X, a.k.a. Oak Ridge, TN. But when Opal falls mysteriously ill, the hideous, unintended consequences of Fos's well-meaning quest overtake and batter two generations” (Smith 128). I agree with Starr Smith that initially experiencing Oak Ridge helped Fos to trust science more because he saw various aspects of science working together in harmony. Unfortunately, his feelings were short lived, since Opal became ill from radiation poisoning. As a result, Fos finally reached the conclusion that science is not always beneficial to the world. He loathes the fact science created the massive killing creation of the atomic bomb. He realized that science has been used for evil rather than good; science could not prevent flooding, it caused massive amounts of death, and it tried to fix problems but caused more problems. Science is a progressing aspect in society, but if it is uncontrolled, it will cause severe issues. For starters, drone technology is becoming easily assessable; therefore, it is possible more stalking will be able to take place without a person knowing. This will allow people to analyze a person’s every move to predict the best possible place to abduct him or her. In addition, science has enabled nations to utilize nuclear energy to power cities, but nations also have nuclear weapons in their arsenal. Currently, North Korea is experimenting with missiles that are capable of generating enormous death tolls in fellow countries. In addition to nuclear weapons, countries utilize computers as a means to hack countries to acquire secret information. Although science is an ever growing aspect of life, there will be some scientists that strive to improve life for everyone, but there will also be people that pursue to harm the world. The unfortunate fact is that these varying perspectives are inevitable no matter what is done; the human race needs to come together to attempt to limit the amount of destruction created due to science.