Previous
Chapter 21
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
Sunday, March 13, 1999 (Henry is 35, Clare 27). Clare and Henry go to Charisse and Gomez’s house to meet their newborn third child, Rosa. Their other kids, Max and Joe, play in the background as Clare fawns over the baby. Henry becomes nauseated while he watches her holding Rosa and remembers the traumas of their miscarriages. When Clare asks him if he’d like a turn holding her, he escapes to the backyard. Gomez follows. Neither of them says anything while Henry cries. Eventually, Gomez asks Henry if they are still trying to have a baby, and Henry tells him about Clare’s three miscarriages. Gomez tries to make jokes to ease the tension, but Henry shuts him down. Then Gomez tells Henry that he actually knows a specialist in “fetal chromosomal disorders” for one of his cases. Henry thanks him, and they go inside.
Charisse and Gomez already have three children together, but Clare and Henry still struggle to have a child of their own—Henry’s admission to Gomez reveals that Clare has had yet another miscarriage. It's unclear what is causing these miscarriages, but it seems plausible that it has something to do with Henry’s condition. Henry’s pained reaction to seeing Clare hold Rosa perhaps reflects his pain and guilt at his possible role in his and Clare’s struggle to have a baby—and his corresponding inability to do anything about it.
Themes
