Wonderstruck

A security guard yells at Ben, but he can’t understand why. He tries to reassure the man by insisting his parents are in another room. After the guard leaves, Ben finds a note. It says, “What’s inside the box?” (358). He realizes suddenly his museum box is missing. He follows a map hand-drawn on the note and finds himself face-to-face with a wolf: “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” (359). The diorama is of Gunflint Lake.

A security guard scolds Rose sends her away from the meteorite display. She flees, startled and scared.

Ben is so startled by the wolves that he falls backward. The curly-haired boy helps him up and offers him his museum box, smiling. Ben is confused and asks how he chose the wolf display. The boy points to the wolf engraving on the museum box lid. After some confusion, the boy realizes Ben is deaf. He introduces himself on paper as Jamie. Ben explains that he was hit by lightning, and he is a runaway. As they introduce themselves, an old woman walks up to the wolf display and stands there for a while, admiring it. Jamie explains: “She’s here all the time” (368). When Jamie learns Ben is from Gunflint Lake, he takes his picture in front of the diorama with a polaroid.

Rose runs through the museum halls. She looks tiny among the hulking dinosaur skeletons and high ceilings. Creatures loom above her. We are left with a still image of her eyes, close-up, wide and frightened.

Jamie brings Ben to a secret room. He has a key. Inside is exhibit storage, and Jamie finds a blanket and lays it down on the floor for them. Jamie explains his mom and dad are separated, and he lives with his dad in the city during the summer. His dad works at the museum. He shows Ben some photographs in a box, and Ben shares his museum box with Jamie: “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” (384). Jamie lets Ben stay in the room for the night, warning him to watch out for the night guard. Ben feels guilty about leaving Minnesota with no note.

Ben wakes from a dream that he is in a blizzard and everything is disconcertingly silent: “he couldn’t tell where the wolves were. Had they disappeared? Or were they right at his heels, about to pounce?” (392). He is sweating. He doesn’t see Jamie and doesn’t want to leave without thanking him, so he explores the museum, leaving the store-room door unlocked. He returns to the wolf diorama and reads about the display. Though the display notes the north star is present in the night sky, Ben thinks “he’d never felt more lost in his life” (393).

Rose runs all the way to the new exhibition, a display of Cabinets of Wonder. A man catches sight of her foot in the crowded line as she disappears into the elaborately decorated room.

Jamie returns that night with food to share. He listens to a record while Ben feels the vibrations. Ben asks Jamie to tell his dad about him, so he can call his family. Jamie is hesitant, but promises he’ll tell. Jamie then takes Ben on a tour of the museum at night through silent, dark exhibits and into the planetarium, where “the 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). They explore the basements and end the tour at the wolves, where their flashlights illuminate shining wolf eyes in the dark.

Rose finds a safe place in the Cabinet of Wonders and gazes at the strange objects around her. As she looks around, peacefully, a hand reaches toward her. First, an image shows only the hand’s shadow, and then, the hand approaching her shoulder.

Back in the room, Jamie and Ben are breathless and happy. Jamie explains his loneliness to Ben. His father ignores him, and he has no friends in the city: “No one likes the things I like. No one shares this stuff with me. […] Only you” (424). Ben feels similarly. Jamie asks why Ben ran away, and he explains his mother’s accident and that he was looking for his father at Kincaid’s. Jamie pauses before writing that Kincaid’s is closed. Ben wonders why he pauses. Jamie says he will call Ben’s aunt and uncle for him, and he will see him the day after next, after his mom visits. Ben reminds him, pleadingly, to call.

The hand touches Rose’s back and leads her out of the exhibit and into an office. Unlike the shouting guard, this hand is friendly. It belongs to Walter, the man who wrote Rose a birthday card. In the office, he asks her “What happened?”

The next day, Ben explores and thinks of the filing cabinets in the basement. He wonders what information he might find in there: “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” (441).

Walter leads Rose outside into the New York City night. They take a cab. Lights shine in the city, and the advertisements indicate that Rose is finally home. They read, “Home,” “Brother’s and Tonic,” and “Safe at Last.” Outside the cab, the moon is enormous and hangs over the city. Images show close-ups of dark night and stars. 

In the file room, Ben searches for the wolf diorama. He eventually finds four files, one of which includes a note mentioning Kincaid’s: “Kincaid’s? M? Ben felt a faint ripple of electricity rush across his skin” (450). He steals the files when he hears footsteps approach, and he searches in more depth in the storage room. Inside one file, he finds a note addressed to his mother from Daniel Lobel. Daniel is doing research on an exhibit on Gunflint Lake and wants her help.

Ben asks the information desk to call his father, Daniel Lobel. They can’t find record of him. He dodges security and asks the people working in the filing room for information. Again, no knowledge of his father: “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” (462). Back in the storage room, Ben is crestfallen. He suddenly realizes this room is familiar to him beyond his recent trip. He dusts the floor and discovers that he is in the old exhibit for the Cabinet of Wonders from his father’s book.

In Walter’s apartment, Rose is finally peaceful. She thanks him, and he hugs her, calling her “sister.” She falls asleep as he reads to her from a copy of Wonderstruck.

Looking around the room and comparing it to the display in Wonderstruck, Ben realizes that his turtle seashell fits on an old part of the exhibit. He is confused and exhausted. He tucks his things away and falls asleep. He has the same dream of wolves and wakes to Jamie in the room with him. Jamie hasn’t called his aunt. Ben begins to explain everything he uncovered, but Jamie isn’t interested. Instead, he gives Ben a sign language dictionary. Inside is a Kincaid’s bookmark with an updated address. Suddenly, Ben realizes Jamie has lied to him. Kincaid’s isn’t closed—it moved. Jamie backpedals and finally admits, “I just wanted you to stay and be my friend” (486). Angry and disgusted, Ben grabs his things and leaves.