By age six-and-a-half, Matilda begins to lose patience with her parents. In retaliation for her father's constant lecturing, she mixes his hair tonic with her mother's hair dye which turns his hair an unhealthy blonde. Harry takes his family to his workshop, where he reveals that the cars he sells are faulty. Matilda accuses him of being dishonest and he belittles her saying He's smart she's dumb, he's big she's little, he's right and she was wrong, so she retaliates by putting super-glue in his hat, forcing Zinnia to cut it off. Matilda reads a borrowed library book of Moby Dick Which Harry then tears it calling it filth reacting to the title while her family is watching television. When Harry tries to force her to watch with them, Matilda grows increasingly angry and the television suddenly explodes