52 pages • 1 hour read
Jack FinneyTime and Again
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1970A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Dangers of Science in the Hands of the Government
One of the most potent themes of the novel is the idea that scientific discoveries become dangerous in the wrong hands, especially with those with political power. In the first chapter, Si distrusts Rube and the military. He is outraged by the threat of government overreach and the thought of them spying on him. While this distrust is not specifically about science, it does demonstrate the government’s abuse of power and the lack of oversight to control those in charge. This hints at the kinds of corruption that can occur with military or governmental power.
The major example of this theme, however, is the opposing ethics between Danziger and Esterhazy. Danziger represents scientific discovery tempered by a strong moral compass, while Esterhazy represents military/nationalistic zeal without limits or ethical boundaries. As the time travel project is Danziger’s creation and passion, one might assume he would be willing to do whatever is necessary to see it succeed. Yet it is he, not Esterhazy, who decides it should be stopped at all costs—including, unbeknownst to him, his own life.
Danziger believes there is a line they should not cross, even in the name of scientific discovery. When he feels the risks of the project outweigh the benefits, he demands that they stop. The speech he gives when the council is voting on the fate of the project is a powerful statement on the dangers of handing science over to those in power. He states,
It is becoming more and more certain, as science uses an almost brand-new ability to pull apart the deepest puzzles of the universe, that we need not and should not necessarily do something only because we’ve learned how. In company such as this I don’t have to spell out obvious examples and consequences of failing to understand that (262).
This statement, like Danziger’s comment about Einstein’s discoveries in Chapter 4, is a veiled reference to the atomic bomb. This allusion is meant to underscore the potentially horrific consequences of not stopping when they should. The dropping of the atomic bomb is just one example of the horrors inflicted on the world when military powers are allowed to wield science like a weapon.
In opposition to Danziger stands Esterhazy who decides that the risks of the time travel project are minor; the loss of (in this case) one man is so small as to be practically meaningless. For Esterhazy (and Rube), the benefits of military superiority are more important than the risks. Their willingness to put other people’s lives on the line is obvious when Danziger resigns, and even more so when Esterhazy asks Si to intentionally change the past in the name of political maneuvering. Once Danziger leaves, control of the project is left in the hands of the government figures, and they quickly prove that Danziger’s fears are justified.
Implications of Changing the Past
Danziger is worried about the effects of altering the past. The implications of what this could do are many and complex. Si gets a first hint of this when he is debriefed following his first two trips. The council is worried he will do something to inadvertently interfere with the timeline. As Si’s actions in the past become more and more elaborate, this anxiety increases. Si himself grows concerned when he observes that “simply being with people is to become involved with them” (192), implying that he will have some influence on the past no matter how cautious he is, simply by being present. This hints at the inevitability of interference and changes.
Danziger’s fears are proven accurate when they discover that one of the other experimenters has accidentally erased a man from existence. Though Esterhazy insists this is a minor alteration, one must ask how he could know for sure. Danziger admits that they can only test those facts of which the experimenters are aware. There are endless possibilities of changes throughout the world that they do not know about.
Danziger’s anxiety is further confirmed by Esterhazy and the council’s decision to alter the past in a bid to make sure President Cleveland will buy Cuba in the past. While they know this could alter the course of American history, they are not concerned about the myriad changes they could cause.
There are other implications to be concerned about besides erasing a person’s existence. When Si alters events such that Danziger’s parents never meet, he ensures that the time travel project will never happen. But that implies a time paradox: How can Si travel to the past to stop the time travel project if that project never exists? The novel does not acknowledge this question let alone attempt to answer it. Yet the implication is there between the lines as a fascinating thought experiment.
Si’s most intense anxiety over altering the past comes during the burning of the World building. While Julia is concerned that they should have done something to stop the fire, Si is worried that their presence might prevent it. In his mind, leaping out of the wall to stop the flame would interfere with something that is already part of history. He fears that simply by being there, his and Julia’s presence may alter something, that “even a tiny, hardly noticed sound might very slightly have affected [Carmody’s] subsequent actions” (372), such that he might not have started the fire.
This line of reasoning, and Si’s later assertion that they could not have done anything differently, leads to a question of fate and how time travel might influence such a concept. This question has no easy answers, though the implications are intriguing: Perhaps time travel offers the opportunity to change one’s fate, or perhaps the time travel was fated as well.
Finding One’s Place
Amid the science fiction and mystery elements of the novel, the emotional core comes from Si’s search (subconscious though it may be) to find a place he belongs. As Blake Crouch posits in his Introduction, “Time and Again is about a character searching for home. Simon Morley’s just happens to be in 1882” (ix). This theme runs like a current beneath the main conflict of the novel and leads inexorably to the story’s conclusion.
The theme is apparent in the opening scene, which makes clear Si’s dissatisfaction and boredom not only with his work but also with his life. Rube confirms this by noting that Si has no family, no wife, and very few friends. He is disconnected from his time. This may be an aspect of his personality that makes him perfect for the project. It is also implied early on as Si describes his love for Kate’s antique store. He feels awe and joy among the bric-a-brac antiquities in ways he never does among modern comforts.
As just one example, television does not seem to interest him. He says that even before he began the experiment, he rarely watched television, and therefore he does not miss it when he has to leave it behind. Likewise, when he shows Julia television, he seems more concerned with its negative effects than its entertainment value.
Si professes a sense of nostalgia—a prominent motif discussed below—which hints again and again at the displacement he feels in his own time and his affinity for the 1880s. Though he may not be aware of it, Si is looking for a home, a place of peace and comfort. The first time he seems to feel at home is during his first evening in Aunt Ada’s parlor, which he describes as “the most pleasant room [he’s] ever been in” (180). In that 19th-century parlor surrounded by people he has only just met, he feels a sense of peace.
This feeling of nostalgia and displacement follows Si through the plot. He is not satisfied with his own time, comparing it negatively to the 1880s. When he climbs the steeple of Trinity Church, it is not the smaller church but the larger Empire State Building that suffers by the comparison. Likewise, the poverty and deprivations of the 19th century seem mild in comparison with the horrors of 20th-century war.
Though he does not seem aware he is doing so, Si constantly draws comparisons between the two time periods as if judging a property to buy or a city to move to. It is no surprise that, when he realizes what he is searching for is belonging, he chooses the boarding house at 19 Gramercy Park in 1882.
