Identity Quotes in The Time Traveler's Wife

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

[Henry:] A translucent moment. I didn't understand and then I did, just like that. I watch it happen. I want to be both of us at once, feeling again the feeling of losing the edges of myself, of seeing the admixture of future and present for the first time. (1.4.42)

Henry witnesses his younger self realizing that they are actually the same person. He wishes he could go back to that moment, longing to unite his two selves into one person.

Quote #5

[Henry:] She is completely impassive, cool as a Raymond Chandler murderess. […] Her laugh sounds spooky, echoing through the woods […] and it seems to me that this moment is the demarcation, a sort of no-man's-land between Clare's childhood and her life as a woman. (1.5.214-225)

Henry is taken aback by how much Clare enjoys humiliating Jason for hurting her. He discovers a new violent side in Clare, but attributes it to her fall from the innocence of her childhood to her new strong, independent-thinking identity as a young woman.

Quote #6

[Henry:] What would I be without [Clare]? Not the man who breathes, slowly, deeply across the bed from me. (1.8.232-233)

Henry realizes that his sense of self is closely tied to Clare. Being with Clare grounds him in his present life and allows him to find temporary peace from his disorder.