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 to get some water, he sees light shining from “Eric’s door,” light which “covered” his socks (26, 27, 29). The light imagery that happens between the father and son is symbolic of how they are handling the death of the mother. The dark room and hallway that the father finds himself in is symbolic of him staying in the shadows of Della’s death and not being able to move past it into peace.
He feels a connection with Eric as he sympathizes with the sobs coming from the door. Unlike the father, however, Eric is in the light, which means that he is not feeling the darkness of death as much as the father is. The outside world is seen as dark because the moon is “invisible” and the city lights are “extinguished” which gives Earth a “shadow” (9). The power being out in the city and the moon not appearing adds to the feeling of heaviness that the father and son share from their loss.
The feeling they have of sadness is like a power outage and they are consumed in the cold shadow of life on Earth after a loved one being gone. Even though the outside is full of darkness, “light” coming from the stars with the “glow” of streetlights and a candle’s “flame” create a contrast (1, 26, 28). The soft glow of the streetlights and the flickering flame of the candle bring small amounts of warmth and hope that shows Eric’s spirit against the darkness by trying to move past the past and towards the future.
In the father’s point of view, the stars bring him warmth because he sees Della in them. The progression of the relationship between Eric and his father is seen first with Eric’s head “bowed” at the funeral, which causes the father to not be able to “finish” his sentences to him and Eric telling him not to “worry” (18, 19). 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 spark started on the grass near them.
The father is shocked that Eric brought up this story because it includes his mother, which he has avoided talking about for weeks. Since Eric brought up the story, the relationship he has with his dad grows closer because it proves to the father that Eric still has not lost Della’s memory and he feels grateful. While he was in the “bathtub,” the father remembered two hours previously when when the power went out, making the room seem “blindly” where he could only hear “himself” (3). 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 Eric sees the bird as an annoying noise machine. After hearing Eric’s different point of view, the father decides not to tell the story of the birds that related to Della and share a moment with Eric because he knows Eric is irritated and it will make things worse because he won’t take it well. The relationship between the father and his son shifts to different tones every time they have a conversation so the author can show how they are developing with each other.
There is a feeling of tension created by the author when the father gets out of the tub and approaches Eric’s “armchair” while he is “sipping” his glass frustrated with the “blank” television (4, 6, 4). Eric’s irascible personality is shown by the author as he answers in short responses to his father because he is becoming annoyed from the inconvenience of the power outage. The father just wants to know what is going on and the author shows that their relationship needs to be healed with a good heart-to-heart talk.
In the past, when Eric told his father not to “worry” at the funeral and his father kept trying to ask if he was “all right,” the feeling of tension built up until Eric was “yelling” at him (19, 20, 23). By showing how Eric’s mood can change and there quickly be tension in the conversation between him and his father, the author shows that Eric can easily get irritated once again. Since the author shows another exchange that goes sour between the father and Eric, this shows that Eric is shorttempered, which is the main cause of the distant relationship they have.
Later on when the father talked with Eric about going to see the “fireworks,” Eric’s lips started to “spread” into a smile when he remembered this memory with his “mom” (45, 49, 52). When the two talk about the good time they experienced with Della, Eric does not get offensive which shows that he needed this conversation with his dad. The author creates this pleasant tone to show that in their relationship, they do not seem as distant from each other any more and they are becoming closer as a result of the topic that Eric surprisingly brought up.
By using light vs. dark elements, imagery, flashback stories from the past, and shifting tones of conversations, Brockmeier helps develop the relationship between father and son. The unfortunate reality that we all have to face at some point, like the father and Eric, is that people close to us die. The struggle for everyone is that we have to remember memories like the father, but eventually let it go or we will never be able to overcome the loss and move on.
