Major Havoc, Star Wars, Star Trek, and the Challenger are all featured within We Dream of Space, illustrating the cultural impact that space and space travel had upon the culture of the period. When Dani Logan suggests that space is “The Final Frontier,” in Ms. Salonga’s class, she is not only referring to a concept from Star Trek but acknowledging a human drive to explore and discover what is beyond current limits of understanding. Space symbolizes the dreams and aspirations of those who seek to rise to their highest of ambitions.

Bird’s detailed schematic drawings are her means of cataloguing all that she has learned. For Bird, machines symbolize order and reliability, a rational, purposeful design meant to perform consistently each time. She finds comfort in the concept of engineering, in being able to visualize and interpret how each part of the whole contributes to the overall function.

Early in the novel, the thought comes to Bird that a family is like a “complicated machine,” in that each person (or part) must function as intended for things to run smoothly. She draws a family schematic depicting each of the Thomases as a gear, all of them existing separately and independently, instead of with their teeth slotted together, working together.