The Time Traveler's Wife The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey
Niffenegger  Time as a Tape Recorder  Symbolism, Imagery,
Allegory  In an effort to explain to six-year-old Clare how a
time traveler's life works, Henry likens time to a tape
recorder. First he describes normal life to Clare: "…you put in
a tape and you play it from beginning to the end, right?… That's
how life is" (1.3.96). Then he contrasts his life to that first
version:  Now for me, it's different. Because I am a time
traveler, I jump around a lot from one time to another. So it's
like if you started the tape and played it for a while but then
you said Oh I want to hear that song again, so you played that
song and then you went back to where you left off but you wound
the tape too far ahead so you rewound it again but you still got
it too far ahead. You see? (1.3.99)  His analogy does a great
job of showing how something as simple as playing a tape can
quickly get out of hand if you lose your sense of beginning,
middle, and end. Once you've lost