My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich

Outer space symbolizes a safe space for Ebony-Grace, as the outer space narrative exists in her imagination, so it’s under her control. The book’s first paragraph reveals that Ebony-Grace has an urgent need to be the person with the power. On the airplane, she declares, “These clouds are a concrete wall! The airplane won’t push past the gray and blue to reach the endless black called outer space. So I have to take control” (9). Ebony-Grace doesn’t control the airplane (she’s not the pilot), and she didn’t have a say as to whether she’d visit her dad in Harlem (she wanted to stay with Granddaddy in Huntsville), but by filtering the countless variables of reality through her imagination, she takes charge of whatever the situation she’s in. Thus, when the girls bombard her with insulting inquiries, she transforms the overwhelming situation into a superhero moment, stating, “I block their laser-beam gibberish by throwing up my arms like Wonder Woman with her Bracelets of Submission” (46). Outer space protects her from people and helps her cope. However, it also turns interacting with people into an ordeal.

The symbolism behind outer space doesn’t change, but how Ebony-Grace uses science fiction and superheroes to deal with reality alters.