I read The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger over the break. The novel, set between the 1970s and the early 2000s, is about Henry DeTamble, a man with Chrono-Displacement, a disease that sends one back and forward into time without warning. In his later life, Henry will travel back to the past and meet 6-year-old Clare Abshire, who in future years is Henry’s best friend and wife. These visits, along with Henry’s present life with his wife, become the basis of the story. Throughout the novel, we see Henry’s struggle to cope with his disorder, constantly leaving his wife for hours and days because of the time travel he cannot control. He faces isolation and loneliness, stuck in past or future years without knowledge of exactly where he is, and ultimately, time travel will be the thing that causes his death.
One of the more prominent ideas in the novel is isolation. In the beginning of the novel, Henry’s mother dies in a car accident that Henry should have been involved in, but fortunately escapes due to unintentional time travel. His dad blames Henry for the accident, unable to cope with the fact that Henry is still living. Though he understands Henry’s disorder, Henry still feels guilty and can no longer relate to his father. One Christmas Eve, the anniversary of his mother’s death, Henry walks alone on the streets of Chicago, finally making his way into a Lounge: “The abandoned ghost train track looms over the street in the sodium vapor glare and as I open the door someone starts to blow a trumpet and hot jazz smacks me in the chest. I walk into it like a drowning man, which is what I have come here to be” (Niffenegger 119). Henry, being the only one with his disorder, is unable to tell people why he constantly disappears for the simple reason that they won’t believe him. Until he meets Clare in the present, Henry constantly feels alone and empty, knowing that he cannot relate to anyone else. He is laughed at by numerous doctors, who all claim his “disorder” is merely psychotic.
However, the novel also expresses the idea of escaping isolation. One of Henry’s greatest fears in the novel is time traveling to the library (where he works), into the metal “Cage” that lies in the middle of the staircase. The Cage has no entrance (and therefore no exit), and should Henry get stuck in the Cage, he would never be able to get out (Niffenegger 305). However, later in the story, Henry does time travel to the Cage. He is separated from the outside world by metal bars, left alone to suffer until he returns to the present time. At this point, the idea of isolation is most prominent in the novel; Henry is truly alone, the only time traveler in a world where nobody understands his disorder. When the security guards, Kevin and Ron, find him, Henry is forced to explain to his bosses what his condition is. His bosses believe him once they see the present Henry show up to work, all while the situation in the Cage continues. At this time, Henry can finally tell someone besides his wife and family what his disorder is, and they believe him. This point is a turning point in the novel; not only do Henry’s bosses know about his disorder, but we also meet Dr. Kendrick, the doctor who will ultimately find a cure to Chrono-Displacement.
One of the passages I found interesting takes place when Henry goes running, a daily activity that he deems necessary. As he runs, Henry says, “I’m flying now, that golden feeling, as if I could run right into the air, and I’m invincible, nothing can stop me, nothing can stop me, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing –” (Niffenegger 154). This passage mirrors the end of The Great Gatsby, and the idea of chasing a dream but not being able to fully reach it. Henry is running towards a dream, but just as he is able to reach it, it disappears. Just as Gatsby attempts to return to his past, to the time when Daisy loved him unconditionally, Henry attempts to return to the time before he time traveled, to escape to a “normal”, present life. However, both are impossible. Henry and Gatsby are therefore similar in that their desires are unachievable. Though Henry’s life becomes better, and he and Clare have their daughter Alba, these years of enjoyment are short lived. Henry becomes too old for Dr. Kendrick to experiment on him, and Henry is left to count down the days of his life.
