Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick is told through two parallel narratives, one through text and the other purely through pictures. The novel unfolds the stories of two twelve-year-olds, Ben and Rose, living in different eras but bound by strikingly similar circumstances.
Ben's story, set in 1977, is told through text. Ben, a boy from Gunflint Lake, Minnesota, has recently lost his mother and is living with his distant cousins. Born deaf in one ear, he finds a clue about his father, whom he never knew. This clue is a bookmark with a message and an address in New York. During a lightning storm, Ben attempts to use the telephone and is struck by lightning, causing him to lose his remaining hearing. Despite this, he leaves Minnesota and sets out for New York to find his father.
Rose's story, set in 1927, unfolds entirely in pictures. Rose is a deaf girl who lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, and feels alone and misunderstood by her overbearing father. She constantly escapes into the silent world of cinema and obsessively collects newspaper clippings about a famous actress, Lillian Mayhew. One day, she ventures to New York City to see Mayhew, who turns out to be her estranged mother.
In the third act of Wonderstruck, Ben and Rose's stories intertwine. Ben discovers a book called Wonderstruck, which leads him to the American Museum of Natural History. There, he meets an older Rose and learns that his father was an employee at the museum but has already passed away. However, he also discovers that he has a sister, and Rose is his aunt. The story ends with Ben finally finding a place where he feels he belongs.
Wonderstruck explores the intersection of life, loss, and the journey for self-identity. Selznick effectively uses the dual narrative structure to engage the reader, seamlessly alternating between Ben's textual narrative and Rose's visual narrative. The parallelism in their stories enhances the novel's depth, and the thematic tie-in with the American Museum of Natural History cleverly brings the two narratives together.
Furthermore, the exploration of the deaf experience through both protagonists, particularly with Rose's silent visual narrative, is a profound method of storytelling that adds a layer of realism and empathy to the novel. Selznick's ability to mesh illustrations with text provides a reading experience that mirrors the characters' experiences – a world where sound is absent and visuals are paramount. His detailed illustrations and compelling writing style captivate readers, immersing them in Ben and Rose's respective worlds, and the final convergence of the two stories offers a satisfying resolution.
