" 'I'm sure it's mostly to annoy their parents. Laura was telling me that her dad won't let Jodie leave the house dressed like that. She puts everything in her backpack and changes in the ladies' room at school,' says Clare." (214).
This shows rebellion, a theme that is present in the novel.
"I know. I'm sorry...time has been moving kind of fast lately." (220).
How does time move fast for someone who can time travel?
"You got a girlfriend?"
I grin.
"Ho ho. Okay, I kow all about it. What's her name? How come you don't bring her around?" (220).
This shows that Kimy is a maternal figure to Henry, who lost his mother when he was young.
"I ask if I can help but Kimy waves me into a chair. I sit across from Henry. His dad is on my right and Kimy's empty chair is on my left. I notice that Mr. DeTamble is wearing a sweater, even though it's pretty warm in here." (236).
Does Mr. DeTamble's sweater have some kind of significance? Why would he be wearing a sweater despite the warmth? Maybe he hasn't done laundry in a while because of his drunken state...
"Ah. Well then, you know thatAnnette had the most marvelous voice...rich, and pure, such a voice, and such range...she could express her soul with that voice, whenever I listened to her I felt my life meant more than mere biology...she could really hear, she understood structure and she could analyze exactly what it was about a piece of music that had to be rendered just so...she was a very emotional person, Annette. She brought that out in other people. After she died I don't think I ever really felt anything again." (238).
Aww. Mr. DeTamble really loved his wife, and he shows it here. Not many men can express their feelings like that.
"'But don't you think,' I persist, 'that it's better to be extremely happy for a short while, even if you lose it, than to be just okay for your whole life?'" (239).
Good question. It's a bit foreshadowing as well.
"He isn't calibrated to bring peace to anyone's life. In fact, he is in many ways the opposite of his mother: unreliable, volatile, and not even especially concerned with anyone but himself. Tell me, Clare: why on earth would a lovely girl like you want to marry Henry?" (239).
This is a bit harsh coming from a parent. Why wouldn't Mr. DeTamble want his son to be happy and marry Clare?
"There's a playground at the end of the block and I run to the swings and climg on, and Henry takes the one next to me, facing the opposite direction, and we swing higher and higher, passing each other, sometimes in synch and sometimes streaming past each other so fast it seems like we're going to collide, and we laugh, and laugh, and nothing can ever be sad, no one can be lost, or dead, or far away: right now we are here, and nothing can mar our perfection, or steal the joy of this perfect moment." (240-241).
I love this quote. It describes perfect bliss.
"Once upon a time there were three little sisters...and they lived at the bottom of a well....Why did they live at the bottom of a well?...It was a treacle well." (242).
Treacle-Molasses. Hmm. This is an interesting allusion. Not really sure what it means though. http://www.answers.com/treacle
"I'm sitting on the stoop of a dingy white aluminum-sided house in Humboldt Park. It's Monday morning, around ten. I'm waiting for Ben to get back from wherever he is." (250).
Who's Ben? --Ben is a friend of Henry's who makes drug cocktails to help Henry stay in the present.
"He nods his approval and ties a plastic cape around my neck. Soon his scissors are flashing little metal on metal noises around my head, and my hair is falling to the floor. When he is done he brushes me off and removes the cape and voila, I've become the me of my future." (263).
Henry is a bit of a hypocrite. He refuses to give anyone hints from the future, yet he knows that his hair is shorter, so he goes and gets it cut...
"The suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalmus, which is located right above your optic chiasm, serves as the reset button, as it were, of your sense of time--so that's what I want to begin with." (323).
Umm. Say what? A little too scientific for me...
"Kendrick throws the latex and needle in a can labeled BIOHAZARD and writes something on the little red vial of blood. He sits back down across from and places the vial on the table next to the Camels." (323).
This is an interesting juxtaposition. The red vial next to the pack of Camels.
"On one hand, I am all eagerness; I want to give Clare a baby, see Clare ripen like a flesh melon, Demeter in glory." (326).
Demeter: The Greek goddess of vegetation and fruitfulness. http://www.answers.com/Demeter
"I am reminded of the story of the monkey's paw, and the three wishes that followed so naturally and horribly from each other. I wonder if our wish is of a similar order." (327).
I've read The Monkey's Paw! Sophomore year. It was a good story. Very intriguing.
"I can hear the doves that live in the wisteria waking up. The world is gray. Slowly color leaks into it, not rosy-fingered but like a slowly spreading stain of blood orange, one moment lingering at the horizon and then flooding the garden and then golden light, and then a blue sky, and then all the colors vibrant in their assigned places, the trumpet vines, the roses, the white salvia, the marigolds, all shimmering in the new morning dew like glass." (336).
I love the imagery in this book.
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