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Chapter 12
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Time Traveler’s Wife, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Here and Now
Love and Absence
Free Will vs. Determinism
Language and Art
Self-Love
Summary
Analysis
Friday, October 22, 1993 (Henry is 30). Henry wanders around Clare’s hometown while she runs a wedding-related errand with Lucille. He is looking for a decent bookstore, but he can only find uninteresting commercial paperbacks. He goes to a barber shop down the street and asks the barber to cut his hair off. Once the barber finishes, Henry looks in the mirror and recognizes the haircut as the one he has seen his older self sporting while time traveling. He feels he has taken another significant step toward becoming who he will be in the future.
It seems significant that Henry takes this next step toward becoming his future self just ahead of his wedding to Clare. The timing of this crucial moment in Henry’s development reinforces how Clare—and perhaps also Henry’s devotion to Clare—motivates him to become a better version of himself and to exercise more self-care.
Themes
