Wonderstruck

Outer space plays a significant role in the visual imagery of the text. It is representative of the way Ben feels lonely and adrift. Space is cold, dark, and silent, which represents both the physical reality of Ben’s worldview (in that he can’t hear, and thus his world is silent), and his emotional reality after his mother dies. Ben has a particular interest in outer space, and his idea of his father comes from one of his mother’s favorite songs, “Space Oddity.” In the song, Major Tom, a space man, is a leading character, and Ben imagines Major Tom is his father, floating off in outer space: “He heard howling as his bed rose up and drifted into space. He was an alien, circling the North Star as Major Tom waved goodbye” (195).

Along with the recurring references to Major Tom, there are several stars in the book, both illustrated and written. Ben and Jamie explore the American Museum of Natural History’s planetarium. In this depiction, the boys are literally floating in space: “[T]he boys found themselves inside a meteor, hurtling across the sky. They flew to the moon and bounced between craters […] soon they were beyond the solar system, gazing down at the universe like ancient gods” (406).