the Time Traveler’s Wife, a rational analysis

Posted on June 30th, 2012 in reading story by admin

Henry says he can’t change the past. But I think he dose in the book.

First, see, the older Henry travels to Clare when she is still a little girl. Wether or not he makes her, she does fall in love with him, the traveler from the future. So Clare falls in love with Henry even before she meets him in the real life. And when she really meets Henry in reality for the very first time, she is extremely happy not because she has a crush on him, but she has finally found the one she misses so much. On their first date, Clare tells Henry they are going to get married because she knows for sure they are married in the future. It’s not a normal conversation you’d have on a first date, right? Suppose the older Henry didn’t travel to little Clare and Clare didn’t know their story and their marriage in the future, then what would happen even if they met in the real life? Maybe they just met and nothing would happen. Maybe they dated for a while and then broke up. At least Clare wouldn’t fall in love with Henry even before she knows him. At least it would take some time for them to fall in love. If Henry didn’t travel, then the first meet and first date would never be the same. So how could Henry say he can’t change the past?

Second question, Henry buys a lottery ticket and wins the prize because he already knew the winning numbers when he travelled. If he didn’t travel there was theoretically  no way to win this prize. No prize, no dream house. But he travels, He wins. So he changes his own life.

My explanation to this conflict is there must be different spaces. In one space, Clare meets Henry, they fall in love, they get married, they may get rich in some way(perhaps not by winning a lottery), they buy this dream house, they go through everything. And Henry travels to another space, and finally affects Henry and Clare’s life in this space. Alien Henry makes Henry and Clare live a similar life that he has in his space.

Or maybe there are not only two spaces. There are many spaces. When Henry travels, he travels through different spaces to different time. All those Henrys  meet each other from time to time, and eventually every one gets involved and they all eventually have the same kind of story. Like, they all win a lottery therefore get the money to buy the house; Every little Clare meets a Henry from some other space and falls in love with him before she finally meets him in real life. It’s possible. And more explicable in and of the book itself.

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