Character Analysis
Growing Pains
Although you might not notice it at first, Mindy Park goes through more growth than any character but Mark Watney himself. Like our humble, botany-loving hero, Mindy was thrown into this ordeal completely out of the blue and forced to adapt to survive.
When we first meet her, Mindy's at a tough place in her life, dissatisfied with her career at NASA. She spends her days "working in an-all night photo booth," leaving her expensive "'Master's degree in mechanical engineering'" to collect dust (6.47). It might not be as bad as filling shifts as McDonalds, but it's still a serious bummer.
Everything changes when she discovers that Mark is still alive. Now, instead of wasting away her days (and nights) in front of a computer, she's rubbing elbows with luminaries like Venkat Kapoor and Teddy Sanders. It's a rags to riches story condensed into the space of an afternoon.
That would be pretty good on its own, but Mindy impresses us all by stepping up to the plate—big time. Her first meetings with the NASA bigwigs are stiff, her shyness shining through at every moment. As time goes on, however, she develops a presence of her own, mocking Teddy when he threatens to fire her by calling herself an "interplanetary voyeur" and a "'space paparazzi'" (24.45, 47). That's what we call chutzpah. No matter which way you slice it, this Mindy Project is a resounding success.