"Space" - The move

As "Space" a Memoir of Jesse Lee continues, we see Jesse Lee's family slowly growing apart, as a result of the families’ recent move to Cocoa Florida from Washington D.C. At the age of 10 Jesse has an open, idealistic mind that welcomes the new opportunities and exciting adventures she believes the move will bring. She has a fascination with space and she can't wait to see a live shuttle launch from her own front yard. Her anticipation of the move and her disappointment that time seems to be against them is shown, "we missed the Surveyor 1 launch, then four days later, Gemini 9. We could have been right there." Jesse is speaking to her sister Carol who was two years older and, like her mother, was not terribly enthusiastic about moving to a hot new state. Whereas Jesse could not wait to be done with school to saying "when I looked at my history lesson, the world swam in incomprehensible rows over the page, like I was still staring at the ocean's waves." This not only shows her impatience but also that there really wasn't anything important that she felt like she was leaving behind and would miss. We see the optimistic young mind of a girl who, instead of looking at the negatives looks at the positives, seeing Florida in a very idealistic way. We could all learn a lesson from Jesse Lee, that no matter what situation we are forced into, if instead of dwelling on the unfortunate situation, we see it as a new opportunity, a new adventure, our lives could be much happier.

In sharp contrast to Jesse, we see her sister and especially her mother; look at their approaching move with a sense of impending doom. Though Jesse seems oblivious to the depth of her mothers sadness and irritation at having to move, we see it clearly when her friend comes over to say goodbye and says " think about it Mary, it's not too late to change your mind." She then responds saying "the girls, besides, my furniture is already there." Though Jesse at such a young age dismisses it as nothing, we can see that the move was very hard on Mary and she had even considered leaving her husband so she would not have to uproot and move across the country. Only continuing to verify the idea throughout the memoir that the relationship between Jesse's parents is anything but close. Her father goes to work everyday but her mother stays home drinking, smoking and lying around because there are no jobs available in her line of work. Sadly Jesse begins to realize that her mother isn't the same person that she was when they lived in Washington. She seems to have given up, but on what we are not sure. Carol, who is only two years older than Jesse, seems to have taken on the motherly role or caring for both Jesse and her mother. We see this especially when Jesse says to her mother, after cutting her foot because she was running barefoot which her "mother" told her not to, "Carol's going to kill me." Then "my mother nodded, as if now we both understood...we sat there a minute more, like we were kids hiding out." It is a sad realization that 12year old Carol is trying to play the mother to keep her family together by trying to prevent anything from going wrong. It is becoming clear as the book goes on that the family situation is deteriorating and Carol feels responsible for holding it together, while Jesse’s young mind fails to see the signs. As I read I can't help but wish we were all still like Jesse, viewing every day as a new and exciting adventure instead of a dreaded event that can't be avoided.