Reading Reflection #4

The Time Traveler’s Wife
Audrey Niffenegger
Pg. 13-28

For one of the first times in my reading, I found a point in this book where it could not be more clear that the author is wanting their readers to make some kind of prediction. On page 13 Clare tells Henry that the oldest she has ever seen him, he was probably in his 40’s. She then says ““…you seemed to be having kind of a rough life…”” This is pretty clear about the general mood of things once Henry is in his 40’s, but lets your mind wonder the simple question of: what is it we don’t know, what’s going to happen? The fact that Clare, in all of the times she has seen Henry, has not once seen him past his forties, it is a reasonable assumption that Henry will die somehow, before he gets very old. Of course, it is also possible that a doctor that Clare mentioned in earlier pages will have success in his research of Henry’s problem and discover some kind of cure, to stop Henry from bouncing around in time, but rather stay in one time period and live the normal life of which he has always wanted. Either one of these predictions is very possible, although I’m not sure which one I would expect of this book yet. 
In this book, something that I can’t wrap my mind around is the concept of Henry being so different, depending on what age he is. This is something that should otherwise be easy to understand, except that, because he is jumping through time at such an unknown type of pace, you never know who did/said what first! ““You said it in your quoting voice, and I guess now that I think of it you must have been quoting me.”” Thinking this through, Henry had been quoting something Clare would later say to Clare, but who said it first? It is such an idea, bouncing through time like that, but when you start to think into it more, this book is working off the theory that time works in a certain way, the way in which this would then work would mean that it’s impossible to actually tell who said this first, because Henry is quoting something Clare would later say but she wouldn’t say it if he didn’t quote it to her. This is one example, but I am someone who likes to try and pick things like this apart until they make sense, in a situation like this though, it’s a loop that seems to really have no answer. 
The final thing that I wanted to analyse is the love that somehow seems to be an undertone to the entire story, even though much of what I read Clare knew Henry, but he didn’t quite know her yet. It’s incredible how the promise for something so deep in the future can cause a spark in him in the present. It makes sense that Clare is madly in love with Henry, he’s been there for her since she was little, he was her shoulder to cry on and all that. She has knows for years by this point that they will some day marry, they will some day try to manage a life around his problem. Henry though, he has no idea how he will feel for Clare. Henry doesn’t know a thing about Clare, but it seems that her promise for their future is enough for him to move on from everything that was his life before she walked into it and start this new life she brings. They are both already in love with each other somehow on the promise of a happy future. This book fascinates me more then I could describe!