Feminism and the need for powerful women
When Bee finally asks Bernadette why she vanished, she explains to her daughter that life back home sucked. It's a lot more interesting and fun to be in Palmer Station, getting into trouble and stuff (very similar to Bee's own personality, not surprisingly). Bernadette went from world-famous, prize-winning architect to being a housewife, constantly afflicted by the petty drama of other kids' parents. Then, she found out her assistant was a criminal embezzling from her, and her husband was having an affair, and she just left. The point is clear, that women are often put into roles that feel like tiny, suffocating boxes. Both mother and daughter share tenacity; they are tenacious enough not to be held back by other people's opinions about what they "should do."
"Finding the mother figure"
Bee's journey for Bernadette is because as Bee approaches her adult independence, she must learn to step into the wild, unpredictable shoes of her mother. There's just one problem—it takes an entire adventure just to re-encounter her mother. This is a literary technique called "bildungsroman"—a story explaining the origin of adult consciousness through adventure. Bee has two examples: Elgin and Bernadette. In the end, she identifies with her mother most, and she ends up being more of an adult for having undertaken the journey.
Marital drama, affairs, and broken homes
This novel approaches the issues of divorce, affairs, and complex families through the eyes of a curious, powerful 15-year-old. From this point of view, the issues seem nearly surreal, but they still matter. When her father cheats on her mother, Bee learns that they are pregnant and that her father is buying his mistress her own house. Perhaps this helps explain her thirst for her mother's company to help her make sense of all this change.
