Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in What the Eyes Don’t See, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racism and Environmental Injustice
Truth vs. Corruption
Community Values and Collective Duty
The American Dream
Family, Tradition, and Strength
Summary
Analysis
As Mona despaired about her inability to get in touch with county officials, Elin got to work behind the scenes, rallying support among her contacts in Washington and getting in touch with Flint’s representative in Congress, Dan Kildee. Soon, Kildee’s legislative director, Jordan Dickinson, called Mona and asked her what it was that she needed. She asked for help from Kildee’s office collecting county and state blood-lead levels for all of Flint. Jordan agreed to help.
Finally, with the positive response from Kildee’s office, Mona had someone interested, enthusiastic, and powerful on her side. Mona began to realize that there were people, after all, who cared about Flint and who were committed to securing justice for its people.
Themes
Marc Edwards and his team continued their research in the meantime, releasing results online that indicated just how serious the problem in Flint really was. Almost half of the water samples they collected from homes in and around Flint showed dangerous levels of lead. Mona and Elin, horrified, texted about how egregious Flint officials’ decision to ignore these reports was. When Marc announced online that he was coming to a town meeting in Flint on September 15th, Mona and Elin decided that they needed to meet him. Elin warned Mona that Marc had a “radioactive” reputation in Washington, but Mona was determined.
Mona had been, up to this point, going through the right channels—and largely getting nowhere, with the exception of the support she received from Dean Dean and Dan Kildee’s office. But Marc Edwards—a “radioactive” yet effective rogue researcher—was making waves with his independent work. Even though Elin was worried that Mona’s potential association with Marc would make it even harder for Mona to get through to the officials with the power to make change in Flint, it was clear to Mona that action—not propriety—was what the citizens of Flint really needed.
Themes
Meanwhile, Mona turned her attention to the blood-lead data she could get from her own clinic. The head of research at the hospital put her in touch with one of the hospital’s research coordinators, Jenny LaChance, and Mona found that the two of them were a good team. With Jenny’s support and data behind her, Mona decided to call a meeting on the morning of September 9th to speak with her Community Pediatrics residents and tell them that she believed the lead in the Flint tap water had made its way into their patients’ bodies.
Mona continued to surround herself with people who were dedicated and unafraid. Mona knew that assembling a committed team and gathering a slew of unimpeachable facts was going to be the only way to get the government’s attention, and she committed herself to doing whatever it took to help the citizens of Flint.
Themes
Mona cautioned her team that she needed to analyze the data before making a firm statement—but she asked them for their help in coming up with how they should best aggregate and examine the data. There was a lot of fine-tuning to do and a ton of data to gather from multiple zip codes. But what mattered was that Mona’s residents were clearly passionate and engaged, determined to help her complete the essential studies. Mona knew then that her team’s results could change the world. Ultimately, they decided to look at only children five and under, and to include all potential sources of lead in the study, like lead paint and bullet wounds.
Even though Mona was impassioned and motivated, she knew that she needed to warn her team to be cautious and rigorous. Their research was precious, and it had to be perfect—Mona knew that the government would look for any reason to discount their findings and continue on with business as usual, and she had to tread carefully.
Themes
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After the meeting was over, Jenny hung back to talk with Mona. She was concerned that she was passing lead to her infant through her breast milk because she’d been drinking coffee and tea made with Flint tap water while at the hospital. Jenny was distressed—she calculated that she’d drunk tainted water throughout her entire pregnancy. Mona calmed Jenny, insisting that her son would be fine, since she wasn’t guzzling tap water all day. But many young mothers in Flint—and their children—were.
This passage is another instance in which dramatic irony heightens the tension. Jenny, as a medical professional, was aware of what lead stood to do to her and her newborn child—but many Flint residents didn’t have this knowledge, let alone the awareness that there was lead in every drop of water they drank. Jenny and Mona’s horror at the silent epidemic of lead poisoning illustrates the urgency of their mission.
Themes
The next morning, Jenny already had some numbers ready for Mona to look at. The data was significant—and Mona’s hypothesis was apparent in the numbers. There were more children with higher lead levels since the city switched the water supply. Mona and Jenny immediately began talking about gathering more test results and data points. There were fewer screenings being done all across Flint, but Mona needed those screenings to create a larger sample size. Jenny urged Mona to get more data from Hurley, which processed labs for the whole county. Mona knew they’d need institutional review board (or IRB) approval and she also knew such a process could take a long time—but Jenny got to work right away, hopeful that they could get approval within a week or two if they didn’t give up.
With data that clearly showed that the switch in Flint’s water source had had a direct impact on the blood-lead levels of Flint’s vulnerable children, Mona and Jenny knew that they had an opportunity to shake their local and state governments out of inaction. But they were also aware of how dismissively those same governments might react to their research—and so they began taking careful steps to ensure that they were using the utmost caution while still delivering results for the people of Flint. Their neighbors needed help as quickly as it could come—but if Mona and Jenny rushed their research, they could squander their only chance to get important officials’ attention.
Themes
Mona got word that Brad Wurfel, the mouthpiece for the MDEQ, was going after Marc Edwards and his research team in the press. Mona was agitated and angry about Wurfel’s blasé approach to the very serious issue—but she knew that she and her team, at least, would be on the right side of history.
With the facts in hand, Mona was empowered by the knowledge that any attempts to discount the water crisis were nothing but desperate and despicable coverups.
Themes
