Rachel Reads...The Time Traveler's Wife

I truly enjoyed reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. It was very well written and it left my brain swarming with curious thoughts! My friend Dena and I decided to both read it, and then to meet up to discuss our reactions. While reading the story, I had many of these thoughts that I will share with you, but it was the opportunity to discuss it and flesh out my thoughts with Dena, that I truly began to understand this book. Perhaps I am reading too much into the story and it really is just a science-fiction type book. But I don't think so. I think there is something much much deeper here, that can teach us about human nature, psychology, and relationships.

It is too bad that no one wants me to write a paper on this - because I have lots and lots to say! :) I won't be offended if you decide to skim (or, gasp! even skip) this entry because you just aren't that interested. I mean, I may never talk to you again, but.....

The simplistic reading of Niffenegger's novel is that it is a love story between a man (Henry) with bizarre powers to travel through time and his wife (Claire) who spends her life waiting for him to re-appear in her present time. Depending on your perspective, it is a tale of time-less love or a tale of a tragedy that never ends.

The Wikipedia page gives a very good synopsis of the book, as does this review. I'll leave it to them to decide how much of the plot to give away! Actually, while I found the book to be very engaging, I found very few plot surprises, and thus very few spoilers. I am truly fascinated by this book, and found a lot of meaning in it. I'd like to share some of that meaning with you, but if you're concerned that I will skew your (future) reading of this book, stop reading now. Go read the book. Then come back and discuss it with me!

Time Travel = Dissociation?
Niffenegger is calling this behavior time travel, but psychologists might call Henry's behavior dissociation. Dissociation is something that trauma victims do to escape the pain of reality. Children who are abused, survivors of brutal crimes, and victims of car accidents often describe the feeling of watching the event unfold, perhaps in slow motion, from outside their bodies (across the room, from the ceiling, or outside the crashed car). It is almost as if they physically separated from their bodies. Long-term survivors may continue to dissociate during particularly stressful, yet not abusive, situations.

Unlike dissociation as we know it, Henry's body seems to leave with his mind. Whereas loved-ones of people who dissociate can often tell when they are dissociating (based on some minor physical changes), technically, that person is still standing in front of them. Henry, however, seems to truly disappear into thin air.

Now some could read this book as taking place entirely inside Henry's mind, and see Henry as a psychiatric patient. I think that while thats a legitimate view, it takes away some of the nuances of the book and cuts off the discussion too early.

I'm willing to venture into the sci-fi world for a little bit and say that while I do believe Henry is dissociating, rather than only time-traveling, perhaps he does have a genetic mutation that allows him to disappear and reappear physically elsewhere. Perhaps his body and mind are so inexplicably connected, so that when his mind dissociates, his body goes with it.

Henry describes the car crash that killed his mother. He was in the car when it crashed, but survived while his mother didn't. We learn that this is one of the first times that Henry has "time-traveled". Scared, anxious, and petrified of the danger, Henry finds himself outside of the car, watching the accident happen - and thus, he believes, is the reason he did not die. I wonder, however, if he wasn't in danger of dying, but in his really really frightened state, he dissociated, and his body went with his mind.

Naturally, the accident is one of the places that he continually re-visits, so is his ex-girlfriend and her suicide. Just like someone with post-traumatic-stress-syndrome, Henry replays difficult situations. He needs to revisit these times until he can learn to process them - and that is a process that psychologists use to help trauma victims move past their trauma.

Claire, the wife of a time-traveler
Although Henry is clearly the main character of the book, the story is titled for his wife. And much of the book is about his time-traveling/dissociation effects her. For Henry, time is very fluid, but the time-line of the book follows Claire's life-span, which is time as we, the readers, know it.

Throughout my reading TTW, I truly sympathized with her as a wife. She knew that at any time he could disappear. For Henry, time traveling meant disappearing and leaving all his possessions (clothes and teeth fillings included) behind in the present. On any given morning, Claire could wake up in bed, roll over, and find the other side of the bed empty. Sometimes her husband would be in the shower or in the kitchen eating breakfast, like most people's husbands. Or, she may find a pile of clothes somewhere in her house, where her husband was last standing before he disappeared. She knows that he has gone, although doesn't know where. And she has no way of knowing when he will return.

For years, she is unable to introduce her friends to her boyfriend (and then her husband) because his appearances in and out of her life just aren't typical. She can't make plans with friends because she doesn't know if Henry will be able to make them. And she knows that her husband "knows" how their lives will turn out because he has already seen it - if not lived it.

Knowing that Henry never got to pick the times when he would disappear, and knowing that he tended to time travel when he was stressed, under pressure, and anxious, I can't begin to fathom how Claire planned a wedding for them - knowing full well that she could be left at the altar, unintentionally, by an overly anxious and nervous groom. But that is the man that she fell in love with, and that is the life she chose to lead. And that impressed the romantic in me.

Alba, the daughter of a time traveler
If you've read the book and have been buying into my theory thus far, I am sure you want to ask about Alba, their child. If Henry's time travel is really more about dissociation and not time travel, how do I account for Alba's ability to time travel? And more so, can my theory help explain why Alba enjoys time-traveling, while her father hated it?

Think about it this way, studies show that children of Holocaust survivors, even those born years after their parents were freed and out of danger, exhibit specific signs and behaviors that are different from children of non-Holocaust survivors.

Perhaps the child of a survivor has learned to hoard his food, because that is something that his parents do. To his parents, the question of whether or not he will have food the next was a big question. So he learned to eat as much as possible when he had it, and save as much as he could hide/carry. This behavior likely brings back painful memories to the parent, as well as, possibly physical pain if he continues the habit of eating as much as possible at one sitting.

However, without those same painful associations, perhaps the child learns to love food. He or she learns that if he saves his food, he can enjoy it tomorrow. And he learns to take a little bit of everything at a buffet because he wants to try everything.

The habit is the same, but without the associations of the trauma that caused it, this learned behavior is fun, rather than bothersome. Perhaps, for Alba, time travel is a learned behavior - and she is able to enjoy it because it is fun to time travel, rather than painful.

So? What do you think? Did I just read too much into this story, or am I onto something here?

If you haven't read it yet, buy it here (The Time Traveler's Wife), read it, and come talk to me about it!

Comments

[flannery]

gah. I hate when a book is dismissed as 'just a science fiction book' especially since this genre is often a medium for exploring the very issues you mention but free from the constraints of 'reality.'

[Shannon (Muzbee Crazy)]

I loved the book. I find your theory interesting. Although, how do you explain the deterioration of Henry's physical self by the end? Even though he was younger he was aging rapidly and I got the impression he looked fairly ill. Do you this dissociation could do that as well?

[Jennifer (5 Minutes for Books)]

I haven't read that book, but I do agree that talking about a book can help flesh out the story--what it means, but what it means to us.

And too funny that we don't have to write papers anymore. . . .

[Nancy]

I read this book a few years ago and loved it. I firmly believe Henry did time travel, but the dissociation theory is a good one.

I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to the movie or not.

[Lindsay]

Great thoughts on this book. I have not read it yet so I dont really think I can comment on if you read to much into it.. but a lot of scifi books are meant to be read into and applied to our lives. Take for example the Chronicles of Narnia.. not just a children's scifi series. :-)

[Rebecca]

Firstly, thank you so much for such a well thought out analysis of one of my all-time favourite books (want to write that paper, you'd have at least one reader!)

I quite like your dissociation interpretation - especially the specific examples you gave of the car accident and the suicide. I was wondering though, what are your thoughts are (I ask because I have limited knowledge of psychology) on his frequent returns to more positive time periods. For example, his visits with his neighbours/father's landlords, or his constant link to Claire - can dissociative acts be to seek out pleasure as well as to deal with pain??

Sorry for rambling in your comments, I was just excited that someone else had clearly enjoyed the novel.

[fool]

Nope. Taking it way too deep and far when it clearly isn't. He literally time traveled. That part is very clearly specified in the book. It couldn't be more literal. He didn't metaphorically leave his clothes behind. It's uncontrollable for him where he goes. Sometimes it's a good place. Sometimes it's a horrible place. It's more like dreaming than dissociation.