Space By Kevin Brockmeier Analysis

Space Humans sometimes have to face the unfortunate reality that people die. "Space," by Kevin Brockmeier, is about a father and son who have to deal with the death of their wife and mother. Tension builds in their relationship throughout the story as they struggle with moving on from Della's death. The problem is that they are trying to move forward without losing her memory completely. Brockmeier uses light vs. dark elements, imagery, flashback stories from the past, and shifting tones seen in conversations to help develop the relationship between father and son. The father has difficulty sleeping in his bedroom that is "thick with shadows," and as he is walking down the hallway
The father thinks back to Della’s funeral and seeing how sad Eric was crying against the doorway. Eric was seen as gentle and understanding to his father who was tumbling over his words. When the father brings up a childhood story about the mother, Eric is “wary” and “twitches” up, and tensions builds when Eric wants to know when it was said and the father “‘can’t remember’” (33, 37). The father desperately wants to remember Della by telling Eric a story of how she fell asleep as a child. When her name is mentioned, it is like ripping up a band-aid to Eric, and he gets annoyed with his father for bringing up a painful memory that he is trying to let go of. The fact that the father can’t be remember when Della told him the story adds to Eric’s annoyance when he lets out a yawn. In the next paragraph, the father expresses his fear of losing his memories of his wife which shows why he wants to continue to talk about her as Eric is trying to do the opposite and forget. When Eric remembered the story of the “spark,” it “surprised” his father because it was the first time that he had talked about something involving Della in “weeks” (43, 44). Eric brings up a story about when he was little and the family was watching a fireworks show; and a
The father being in the darkroom isolates himself from everyone else, causing him to be alone with his thoughts. Being separate from his son in the dark room symbolizes his not letting go and staying in the dark past, while Eric is out in the living room thinking of new things as he watches television. The imagery of the ice that clicks in the “glass” that Eric “bit” into is another scene of Eric’s frustration with his father when he tells him to “‘look outside’” (6, 8). After the power goes out, Eric is frustrated and crunches at his ice while staring at the blank television. When his father comes out of the bathroom, he asks Eric what is going on and gets a snappy reply. The thick spread of tension builds in their relationship when Eric gives a smart response to the father that tells him to find out himself why the power is out. Outside during the power outage, the “woodpecker” that is “louder” than cars causes the father to reminisce about his “first” morning in the house with Della (28). The noise of the woodpecker gives the father a pleasant memory of when he was listening to the birds with Della. In contrast, Eric calls them “‘damned birds’” and says they are disruptive. The different views of the bird makes their relationship separated as the father sees a happy memory in the bird, while