Conclusion

Overall, The Time Traveler's Wife is a phenomenal book that shows a true love story that could concur anything including time. Clare and Henry may sometimes look like a fairy tale but they had ordinary problem and ordinary arguments that created a true relationship that everyone who read the book could relate to. Henry may have a genetic disorder but dealt with his problem very well by accommodating his life to work around it. He got married and had a child and continued his life to the fullest. Clare loved Henry from the moment she saw him when she was six years old. Nothing could compare to how she felt about him. Clare was use to begin left by henry because she had been left by him since she was a little girl. As years went on it got harder but she had her beautiful daughter Alba and her created family to help her miss him less when he was gone. This book is an amazing love story that shows the positive side to Time when in reality we do not think there is a positive. Niffenegger has shown a positive side and created a book that is amazing.

Alicia Abshire

Alicia is Clare's younger sister. She plays as a small character in the book but her little part is very important. Alicia had recognized Henry before the first time she met him. She had a few encounters with Henry when he would time travel and stay in the house but she was too young to actually come up with facts. When Alicia met Henry she was very put off because she thought she knew him from somewhere. Clare played it off to make her seem crazy when in reality Henry and Alicia have had conversations before she had introduced them that one Christmas. Alicia bonded really well with Henry and she had a very close relationship with Clare. Alicia was the baby and wanted to go out and have fun when Clare was the one who kept the family running functionally. Alicia was an amazing Violist and loved Henry's father's ability to bring music to life.

Annette DeTamble

Henry and his mother

Talking about being in love and

 wanting to purpose to Clare

Annette is Henry's mother and she affected a lot of lives. Annette was a beautiful opera singer and her and Richard fell in love when they were really young. She only cried twice in her life, once when Richard gave her the engagement ring and asked her to marry him, which now Clare has the pleasure of wearing and when Henry was born. Henry was the love of Annette's life from the moment he was born. She loved him fully for everything he did. She was not disappointed that he was not musically inclined like her and her husband she loved him for him. Richard also loved Henry for who he was while Annette was alive but when he lost her he lost a big part of his happiness. Annette had a big role in how Henry and Richard lived the rest of their lives. Annette gave Henry the strength to move on and find love. When he found Clare they had an encounter about how he wanted to purpose to Clare and she told him to follow his heart. He was a complete stranger to her, but she was his mother and that meant the world to him. Mr. DeTamble turned to drinking and not wanting to go on with his life. His drinking turned into a problem by him not being able to play Violin anymore. Mr. DeTamble ends up teaching Alba everything that he knows about the Violin and how to play. I think that Alba reminds him of Annette.

Kimmy

Kimmy is Mr. DeTamble's landlord. Kimmy is an older woman who helped raise Henry. Kimmy was the mother figure in Henry's life when his mother passed away at a young age. Mr. DeTamble lives with Kimmy after Henry moves out and she takes care of him when he gets fired and starts to drink heavier. Kimmy meets Clare and right away adores her. Clare and Kimmy become very close to one another through out the book. Henry gives Kimmy his dads rent so that she does not have the burden of his father when he is going through a rut. Kimmy had been married and had a little girl years ago. Her daughter died before Henry was born but Henry has traveled back to see her. Mr. Kim passed away after Henry's mother died. Kimmy is a very strong character in the book and deals with loss way better than any character in the book has. Kimmy is strong willed and this book shows a great strong woman that helps lift up people when they are down when she was having a hard time pulling herself together she rose above it all.

Mark & Sharon

Mark and Sharon are a couple in The Time Traveler's Wife That struggle through out the entire book. Mark is Clare's older brother and when Henry meets him and his girlfriend it was very devastating for Clare's family. Mark had gotten his girlfriend Sharon pregnant and wanted to get married to create a family. Mark felt obligated and his mother did not like that. Clare's mother Lucille and her father Phillip had gotten pregnant with Mark when they were both young. Lucille does not approve of the marriage because she feels as if history is repeating itself. Mark and Sharon end up getting married and having more than one child but Sharon still does not get the approval of Mark's mother.

Dr. Kendrick

Doctor Kendrick is the genetic doctor that helps Henry figure out more information about his genetic disorder. Dr. Kendrick did not believe that Henry was a time traveler until he saw it before his own eyes. it happened when Henry got frustrated because Dr. Kendrick would not even give him the time of day and he ended up time traveling in the middle of an interception. Dr. Kendrick was getting more interested in Henry when he didn't even have an idea of what he was when Henry gave him a note that said that his son was going to have down syndrome. Dr.Kendrick helped Alba tame her time traveling by doing testing on her too.

Clare & Henry

Henry: When you live with a woman you learn something every day. So far I have learned that long hair will clog up the shower drain before you can say "Liquid-Plumr"; that it is not advisable to clip something out of the newspaper before your wife has read it, even if the newspapers in question is a week old; that I am not the only person in our two-person household who can eat the same thing for dinner three nights in a row without pouting; and that headphones were invented to preserve spouses from each others musical excesses. (How can Clare listen to Cheap Trick? Why does she like The Eagles? Ill never know, because she gets all defensive when I ask her. How can it be that the woman I love doesn't want to listen to Musique du Garrot et la Farraille?) The hardest lesson is Clare's solitude. Sometimes i come home and Clare seems kinda irritated; I've interrupted some train f thought, broken into the dreamy silence of her day. (Niffenegger, 275-276).

This quote is Henry talking about his new life married to Clare. It sounds much different than their relationship before because of the habits and different information comes out when you spend more time with someone. Henry finds out that it becomes a problem when Clare does not like the fact that they eat the same thing three days in a row and also their musical differences. This quote shows that their relationship is a normal relationship and not a fantasy.

Comparison Between Movie & Book

The Time Traveler's Wife the movie is very different from the book. I had watched the movie before reading the book and i fell in love with the love story between the two main characters. When I started reading the book i was mesmerized by how different the love between the characters was. Clare played by Rachel McAdams did an outstanding job at portraying the emotions of Clare, but the story did not feel complete due to the lack of detail being left out. Simple things were left out for example the number of children Charisse and Gomez have. In the movie it shows two but in the book they have three children. The book portrays so much more detail than the movie but the majority of movies are like that. This book would have been a huge challenge to create into a movie due to the two perspectives of the two protagonists. It would be difficult to get both sides of the story of the entire story in two hours. Besides the fact that some of the important information was left out of the movie I think that the movie was a pretty good version of the book. With Rachel McAdam's as the lead female role it really brought character to the entire movie based around her character.

Death

Death is another theme that comes up in The Time Traveler's Wife. There are many deaths that create different personalities of the characters that are affected by it. Clare loses her mother to ovarian cancer and does not think that her mother loved her at all, when she finds the poem that her mother wrote her and she finally had closure with it. Henry loses his mother when he is six in a car accident that he was also in. Henry's father got depressed when he lost his wife and Henry tried to make himself noticed by being the best he could be to impress his father. Henry travels back in time and sees his parents love for one another. Henry takes that and puts it into the relationship that he has with Clare. Death is shown in different ways and different situations in the book The Time Traveler's Wife. 

Time

Time is the main theme that is portrayed in the book The Time Traveler's Wife. Henry's genetic disorder causes him to time travel when ever and where ever without him knowing when it is going to happen. The time apart from his wife Clare puts issues in the relationship but only because they long to be with one another. Time is shown in a positive way in the book. Clare is an artist and gets a lot of alone time to work on her art while Henry is gone. This book focuses on the things that happen when they are together more than they are apart. Although many people think that there is not a positive aspect to time Niffenegger has shown that there is.

Lucille and Phillip Abshire

Clare and Henry's Wedding Party:

Gomez, Richard, Lucille, Phillip, Mark

Alicia, Charisse, Clare and Henry 

Lucille and Phillip Abshire are Clare's parents. They have three children Mark, Clare and Alicia. Lucille suffers from depression and anxiety and has a hard time not speaking her mind about things that both her. When Henry goes and meets Clare's family for the first time he is shown how dysfunctional side of the family. Lucille goes into a break down because she is told before Clare and Henry get there for Christmas that Mark and Sharon are now getting married because Mark and Sharon are expecting a child. Lucille will not have it, she thinks that Mark is throwing his life away but in reality Mark is just following in his father's footsteps by taking responsibility. Henry gets to witness everything that Clare did not want him to have to see the first time he met her family. They bond over how their families embarrass them sometimes and help each other through what ever they need to face during the period that they are at Clare's parent's house.

Charisse and Gomez

Clare and Gomez 

Charisse and Gomez are Clare's best friends and roommates. They are in love and end up getting married before Clare and Henry do. Gomez has a hopeless crush on Clare and always will. He always looks at Clare different than he looks at Charisse and it kills her. Charisse is the mother of Gomez's three children but that does not seem to be enough for Gomez he still wants what he cannot have which is Clare. When Gomez found out about Henry's condition he tried to convince Clare to get away from him and not have anything to do with him anymore. That was the first time of many that he would try and tell Clare to leave Henry but it would never work. Charisse is Clare's best friend from college. She moved in with Charisse and Gomez once she finished college and once she met Henry in her present she moved out of their house soon after.

Richard DeTamble

Richard DeTamble is Henry's father. Mr. DeTamble is an amazing violinist who played for a huge orchestra. His wife whom passed away was a beautiful singer who Mr. DeTamble loved very much. Mr.Detamble resents Henry for his wife's death because he lived and she did not. When his wife died he turned to alcohol and it ended up hurting him in the long run by him not being able to play violin anymore. Mr.DeTamble was very depressed until a special surprise came along and stole his heart again. Alba who is his granddaughter was brought into this world and he was mesmerized by her. He wanted to pass on everything he knew about music and she became a great violist too. He finally had meaning in his life again and got to have the bond with Alba that he did not have with Henry.

Alba DeTamble

Henry and Alba 

Alba is Henry and Clare's daughter. Alba is a loving child who is always the life of the party no matter what she is doing she is always making people smile. She has the same genetic disorder and Henry but she has much more control over when she wants to go or where she wants to go. Alba is a very strong young girl and also like Clare had to mature at a young age. When Alba is five years old Henry is shot while he is time travelling and passes away. It puts a lot of strain on Clare and she becomes depressed until Alba pulls her out of it. Alba is very intelligent and loves to learn about the past and history which is why she loves time traveling so much. She spends a lot of one on one time with Henry's father as he teaches her all she needs to know to be a phenomenal violinist.

[Clare:] My body wanted a baby. […] I wanted someone to love who would stay: stay and be there, always. (Niffenegger, 233)


This quote is from Clare talking about how badly she wanted a child. After six miscarriages she finally got the daughter that she wanted, Alba. 

Henry DeTamble

Henry DeTamble is the first protagonist in The Time Traveler's Wife.  Henry has a genetic disorder where he is able to time travel at any point in time.  During his time traveling he travels to a meadow and meet six year old Clare Abshire. When he meets Clare he is forty and she is six years old. Henry goes back and visit's young Clare when he gets drawn back to the meadow which is the back yard of her house. Henry does not tell young Clare but when he time travel's back home he is spending time with her older self and their daughter Alba. Audrey Niffenegger uses foreshadowing through out this entire book to show what is going to happen in the future for Henry and Clare.



[Henry:] This is why I love to be drawn by Clare: when she looks at me with that kind of attention, I feel that I am everything to her. (Niffenegger,280)


This quote is in Henry's perspective and it shows how connected he feels to Clare even after being together for so long. He feels as if she can just give him 100 percent attention and it makes him feel very loved when they are together. 

Clare Abshire

• Clare Abshire is the second protagonist in the book The Time Traveler's Wife. Clare meets Henry DeTamble who is the first protagonist in the field of her house when she was six years old. Clare falls in love with Henry right away and becomes attached to him even though he is a time traveler and she does not get to see him as often as she would like. Clare goes on living her life when Henry is not around but when he time travel's to her, her whole world stops. She tries to live her life normally when he is gone but the more that she sees him and the more that they spend time together she has a hard time living without him. She's loved Henry since she was six years old and he is the only man that she has ever loved. She waited for him and was very patient with his condition. Henry and Clare end up getting married in Clare's future, and having a beautiful daughter named Alba after 6 miscarriages. Henry's dad takes part in Alba's life along with their close friends Charisse and Gomez and their three children. Henry and Clare are a perfect example of a couple that can fight time with enough love. 

[Clare:] "Do you love her?" [Henry:] "Very much" […] I'm astonished to see that tears are streaming across her face […] [Clare:] "It's just that I thought maybe you were married to me." (Niffenegger,214-215)

This quote was shared between Clare and Henry when Clare was six and getting to know Henry. She was asking about his wife that he always talks about which she later finds out is her. She is upset because she is in love with him and he does not have any idea, so she thinks.