Wonderstruck

“Now that she was gone, he realized it wasn’t true.” 

Here, Ben references the North Star, which his mother showed him so that he can always find his way home. Ben realizes that being lost is not only a physical experience—it can be an emotional experience as well. Unfortunately, the North Star will not guide him toward his father. 

“It was like entering a museum of his old life.” 

When Ben finally does enter his childhood home, he thinks of it as a museum of his life before his mother’s death. This connects back to the idea of curation in the novel, and Ben’s belief that even personal or mundane collections are worthy of display.  

“We all miss her, you know.” 

Ben’s cousin Janet speaks this line, reassuring Ben that he is not the only one grieving. Unlike other members of his family who make him feel isolated, Janet is the only person who grieves with Ben over the loss of his mother. 

“Maybe he was making a museum about Gunflint Lake.”

After reading the book Wonderstruck, Ben begins to think about how his museum box might be its own kind of collection—a personal history of his life in Gunflint Lake. He is interested in the ways that collection can mark a personal history. 

“The viewer was indeed supposed to feel a kind of ‘wonder’ and awe while looking at everything laid out before him. If you’ve ever stood beneath the skeleton of a dinosaur […] you know this feeling of wonder.” 

This is a quoted passage from the fictional book, Wonderstruck. It is about the history of museums and the sense of awe that they impart upon their viewers. This sense of awe carries thematically throughout the novel, both from physical sights and emotional experiences. 

“February 1965. Elaine—This piece of me is for you. Please call or write. I’ll be waiting. Love, Danny. Beneath that were a phone number and an address in New York City.” 

This is the note Ben finds on a bookmark inside Wonderstruck. It is addressed to his mother from someone named Danny, who he suspects may be his father. This note sparks the entire journey to New York City, as Ben uncovers the secrets and artifacts that lead him to his biological family. 

“His father wasn’t Major Tom, lost forever among the stars. His father was Daniel and he lived in New York City.” 

After finding both the note on the bookmark and the locket, Ben realizes that his father really is Daniel, and Daniel is living in New York. He is thrilled at the idea that his father isn’t actually a mysterious astronaut floating through space but is actually someone he might meet and speak with. 

“Ben smelled cigarette smoke blowing in beneath the door. 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 […] and there, a million miles below, he saw a wolf […] it was running through the streets of New York City.” 

This passage details a dream that Ben has immediately after he is struck by lightning. It combines much of the symbolic content of the novel, including space, Major Tom, the wolves, and New York City.

“All he could hear in his mind was David Bowie singing about Major Tom.” 

This passage comes after Ben has gone completely deaf, as he walks through the streets of New York City. For him, the streets are silent, and all he can hear is “Space Oddity” by David Bowie. This music connects him to his home and to his mission to find his father. 

“Trying to look in every direction at once made Ben dizzy. Which way was he supposed to go?” 

Ben is lost in New York City, trying to find the address for his father’s old apartment. Though in this scene he is physically lost, this moment also reflects his emotional landscape: He is emotionally lost, uncertain where to go and what he is trying to achieve. 

“Continuing onward, like a boy lost in a castle, Ben walked through gigantic hallways and down marble staircases. He discovered a herd of elephants […] a whale hovered in mid-air…” 

Ben’s first experiences in the American Museum of Natural History are recorded here, as he stands in awe of the massive exhibits. This is his moment of being “wonderstruck,” standing in awe before the beauty around him. 

“And if a meteorite was the same as a shooting star, could you still make a wish even after it had fallen to Earth?” 

Ben and Rose have mirrored experiences in front of the ancient meteorite display in the museum. They both wonder whether the stone still has the power, like a shooting star, to grant wishes. Both of them wish on the meteorite in their own way. 

“Beneath the blue light of an unseen moon, two wolves were running across a snowy landscape, heading right for Ben. […] It was as if someone had cut out the dream from his brain and put it behind glass.”

When Ben first sees the wolf diorama in the museum, he is terrified. It is his nightmare made real. Despite his initial fear, the wolf display and his research on the exhibit will lead him to his father and eventually to Rose and Walter. 

“Unlike Robby, Jamie didn’t tease him. He seemed to love hearing about [the objects] […] Only his mom had ever shown this much interest in his collection.”

Ben finds belonging and friendship in Jamie, as they share their curated collections with one another—Ben shares his museum box, and Jamie shares his photographs. The boys have a mutual respect for each other’s collection, and thus for each other. 

“…he couldn’t tell where the wolves were. Had they disappeared? Or were they right at his heels, about to pounce?”

This passage comes from another dream that Ben has, this time while he is sleeping in the storage room at the museum. Wolves aren’t chasing him this time, and he isn’t sure what to make of this change in the symbolism of his nightmares. 

“[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.” 

This scene comes when Jamie shows Ben around the museum. They visit the planetarium and receive a personal tour of the solar system. The planetarium makes them feel as if they are actually floating through space and mirrors the landscape of Ben’s dreams. 

“Ben wished the world was organized by the Dewey Decimal system. That way you’d be able to find whatever you were looking for, like the meaning of your dream, or your dad.” 

In this moment, Ben remembers the organization that his life with his mother offered him—she was a librarian, and thus had a system for everything. Ben wishes that the world worked under such systems, so he would no longer feel so lost. 

“Out of breath, he knelt down and stared into the wolves’ eyes. They seemed to burn with secrets Ben was sure he’d never know.” 

After Ben discovers that his father no longer works at the museum, and thus can’t easily be found, he visits the wolves. He finds their eyes mysterious and secretive and wonders if he’ll ever understand the symbolic meaning they carry or their significance in his life. 

“I just wanted you to stay and be my friend.” 

Jamie writes this note to Ben to explain why he lied to him about Kincaid’s Books being closed. When Ben discovers the truth, he is appalled at his friend’s selfish behavior. However, Ben understands Jamie’s loneliness and forgives him. 

“He used the word ‘radical’ to describe [your mother], meaning, I think, that she lived completely on her own terms, and he loved that about her.” 

Rose tells Ben in this passage how his father felt about his mother. Ben feels like Rose knows his mother, though she only briefly met her—he feels a sense of kinship to both his father and Rose because of this connection to his mom. 

“Your dad was ill, Ben. He had a heart condition […] a few years after he returned from Gunflint Lake…his heart…” 

Rose writes this passage to Ben. It trails off in her grief, but Ben understands that his father is dead. Both are devastated and share a moment of grief. 

“They’d been guiding him, leading him onward, through the snow, to his father.” 

Ben realizes in this moment, after learning about his father’s work on the wolf exhibit, that the wolves had been guiding him in his dreams all along. They were never menacing figures, but rather symbols of his bravery and his quest to find family. 

“Thinking about all the connections that led him here, Ben marveled at how everything could be traced, like the path on a treasure map […] The world was full of wonders.” 

Ben realizes the connections that brought him to this place, and to finding his family and his friend Jamie. He is in awe of the wonder of the world and the traces that his quest left behind; particularly in his notebook, which is a record of it all.