Red and White Symbol in The Time Traveler’s Wife

In The Time Traveler’s Wife, the color white symbolizes the hope of new beginnings, while the color red symbolizes the ongoing struggles of life. For much of the novel, white is associated with Clare’s keenest desires. In two pivotal moments in her relationship with Henry—when they have sex for the first time on Clare’s 18th birthday and when they marry—Clare wears white, which traditionally symbolizes purity and beginnings. This is precisely what Clare longs for in these moments: fresh starts that will signal the end of their tumultuous courtship. Instead of marital bliss, however, a whole new set of issues arises once Clare and Henry are married, and Henry’s time traveling still leaves Clare lonely and worried. She determines a baby could serve as a companion in his absence, but their attempts to conceive result in numerous pregnancy losses that threaten Clare’s life. The color red appears frequently during this period in relation to both Clare’s pregnancies and Henry’s time traveling incidents. In a dream Clare has during her final, healthy pregnancy, she encounters a white sheet on the floor. This represents the promise of the new life growing within her, but it is spoiled by a drop of blood that falls from her body and dyes the whole sheet red, symbolizing her fear of miscarrying again. Clare and Henry cling to the hopefulness conventionally associated with the color white when they select their daughter’s name: Alba, which means “white.” The symbolism of her name demonstrates her parents’ wish for her birth to be a fresh start. Yet complications continue to arise after Alba is born, as Henry’s time travels become more dangerous, and stress weakens his body.

Clare’s obsession with idealized life moments, symbolized by the color white, is a manifestation of her longing for certainty in a relationship where neither she nor her partner have control over their daily lives. What Clare finds, however, is that new beginnings don’t bring an end to hardship; every new season of life inevitably brings its own complications. When Henry loses his feet in a time traveling accident, Clare’s creation of a set of wings for him marks a turning point in her relationship with suffering. While she could have left the angel wings a stereotypical white, she decides to paint the wings red. This decision symbolizes the end of her idle hope for peace and a new commitment to embrace the messiness of existence.

Red and White Quotes in The Time Traveler’s Wife

The The Time Traveler’s Wife quotes below all refer to the symbol of Red and White. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

The next evening I’m standing in the doorway of Clare’s studio, watching her finish drawing a thicket of black lines around a little red bird. Suddenly I see Clare, in her small room, closed in by all her stuff, and I realize that she’s trying to say something, and I know what I have to do.

Related Characters: Henry DeTamble (speaker), Clare Abshire

Related Symbols: Wings, Red and White

Page Number and Citation: 282

Explanation and Analysis:

My body wanted a baby. I felt empty and I wanted to be full. I wanted someone to love who would stay: stay and be there, always. And I wanted Henry to be in this child, so that when he was gone he wouldn’t be entirely gone, there would be a bit of him with me…insurance, in case of fire, flood, act of God.

Related Characters: Clare Abshire (speaker), Henry DeTamble

Related Symbols: Red and White

Page Number and Citation: 321

Explanation and Analysis:

I walk down the long hall, glancing in the bedrooms, and come to my room, in which a small wooden cradle sits alone. There is no sound. I am afraid to look into the cradle. In Mama’s room white sheets are spread over the floor. At my feet is a tiny drop of blood, which touches the tip of a sheet and spreads as I watch until the entire floor is covered in blood.

Related Characters: Clare Abshire (speaker), Lucille Abshire

Related Symbols: Red and White

Page Number and Citation: 369

Explanation and Analysis:

“What we need,” Henry says, “is a fresh start. A blank slate. Let’s call her Tabula Rasa.”

“Let’s call her Titanium White.”

[…] “Alba DeTamble.” It rolls around in my mouth as I say it.

“That nice, all the little iambs, tripling along […] ‘Alba (Latin) White. (Provencal) Dawn of Day’. Hmm.”

[…] “A white city on a hill. A fortress.”

Related Characters: Henry DeTamble (speaker), Clare Abshire (speaker), Alba DeTamble

Related Symbols: Red and White

Page Number and Citation: 378

Explanation and Analysis:

We sit up, and I hold her for a while. She is shaking.

“Clare. Clare. What’s wrong?”

I can’t make out her reply at first, then: “You’re going away. Now I won’t see you for years and years.”

“Only two years. Two years and a few months.” She is quiet. “Oh, Clare. I’m sorry. I can’t help it […].”

“How come I always have to wait?”

“Because you have perfect DNA and you aren’t being thrown around in time like a hot potato. Besides, patience is a virtue.”

Related Characters: Henry DeTamble (speaker)

Related Symbols: Red and White

Page Number and Citation: 419

Explanation and Analysis:

“Any tissue that’s gonna make it will turn bright red. If it doesn’t look like a lobster, it’s a problem.”

I watch Henry’s feet floating in the yellow plastic basin. They are white as snow, white as marble, white as titanium, white as paper, white as bread, white as sheets, white as white can be. […] I watch to see his feet turn bright red. It’s like waiting for a photograph to develop, watching for the image slowly graying into black in the tray of chemicals. A flush of red appears at the ankles of both feet. […] The right foot remains stubbornly blanched.

Related Characters: Clare Abshire (speaker), Henry DeTamble

Related Symbols: Red and White

Page Number and Citation: 469

Explanation and Analysis:

“I made you something,” Clare says.

“Feet? I could use some feet.”

“Wings,” she says, dropping the white sheet to the floor.

The wings are huge and they float in the air, wavering in the candlelight. They are darker than the darkness, threatening but also redolent of longing, of freedom, of rushing through space. The feeling of standing solidly, on my own two feet, of running, running like flying. […] (Look, I am living. On what? Neither childhood nor future/ grows any smaller…Superabundant being/ wells up in my heart.)

“Kiss me,” Clare says, and I turn to her, white face and dark lips floating in the dark, and I submerge, I fly, I am released: being wells up in my heart.

Related Characters: Henry DeTamble (speaker), Clare Abshire (speaker)

Related Symbols: Wings, Red and White

Page Number and Citation: 477

Explanation and Analysis:

Red and White Symbol Timeline in The Time Traveler’s Wife

The timeline below shows where the symbol Red and White appears in The Time Traveler’s Wife. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...waiting in a classroom in the basement of the church. She admires herself in her white wedding dress. Lucille, Alicia, Charisse, Helen, and Ruth are all running around anxiously waiting for... (full context)

...she feels an internal pain. Soon, she has menstrual cramps and finds her underwear stained red with blood. Charisse and Gomez arrive to take her to the hospital, and she leaves... (full context)

...is 26). Henry stirs from sleep and smells blood. He finds a large pool of red in the bed surrounding Clare. He tries to wake her up, explaining that she’s bleeding,... (full context)

...for an empty baby cradle. When Clare goes into her mother’s room, she finds a white sheet on the floor. She bleeds on it, and the red spreads quickly to cover... (full context)

...pregnancy. She compares it to living underwater in a diving bell with her unborn baby, sheltered from the elements but out of reach of everyone else. She worries constantly that the... (full context)

...want her name to symbolize a clean beginning, so they look for names that mean white. When they find the name Alba listed, they agree that it sounds beautiful. (full context)

...to Clare’s 18th birthday. When he arrives in the Meadow, Clare is dressed in all white and patiently waiting for him. She presents Henry with a garment bag containing a tuxedo.... (full context)

...studio making delicate, almost transparent paper. Alba runs in to show Clare her the new ruby slippers Henry bought her. Henry follows behind Alba. Clare notices a bandage on Alba’s arm.... (full context)

...run toward the source of the shout, but there will only be a spot of red blood left behind. Clare will arrive; Henry will motion to her to keep quiet as... (full context)

...the water, Henry exclaims. The doctor tells him that any viable tissue will turn as red as a cooked lobster. Clare watches Henry’s feet, but the remain stark white. While some... (full context)

...an eight-foot wingspan; the wings hover in the air, suspended from string. She retrieves deep red and black paint, then the fibers required for the paper she plans to make. She... (full context)

...step: putting them in the blender. This tenderizes them, after which she adds the binding ingredients that will transform the fibers into a workable material. She removes the paper and places... (full context)

...toes flexing. As Henry lectures, a young woman points out that the skin is turning white. In another dream, Henry is running at the lake. All is well until pieces of... (full context)

...around 11 p.m. They cuddle beneath a blanket together, holding each other. The yard is white with snow. As it grows closer to midnight, Henry becomes afraid. Clare encircles her body... (full context)

...Henry’s skin and the weight of his body. She holds him as a pool of red forms around his body and trickles from his mouth. She can still hear firecrackers popping... (full context)

...to a place he had never been before. At the end of a hallway, he entered a white, light-soaked room. An elderly woman was there drinking tea by the window. When... (full context)

...an unknown time. He walks down a dark hallway to the door of a well-lit, white room he can see at the end. In the room he finds a woman drinking... (full context)

The Time Traveler’s Wife

Audrey Niffenegger

Red and White Symbol Analysis

Red and White Quotes in The Time Traveler’s Wife

Red and White Symbol Timeline in The Time Traveler’s Wife