Time and Again

The motif of curiosity pervades the narrative. Si reflects on curiosity when he explains the letter to Danziger, claiming that curiosity may be the “strongest instinct of the human race” (80). According to Si, curiosity motivates all of humanity; in any case, it certainly motivates him. Si’s curiosity (and, to a lesser extent, Kate’s) keeps him moving forward despite his anxieties about changing the past.

For instance, when he arrives at the boarding house and worries about provoking Pickering’s violent behavior, he briefly considers leaving. However, he admits to himself that he must know what will happen at the meeting between Pickering and Carmody and cannot bring himself to leave. Likewise, Danziger’s scientific curiosity inspired him to start the project and is what impels him to let it continue despite his misgivings. Thus, curiosity as a motif is entwined with the theme of the Implications of Changing the Past as a kind of counterbalance to its inherent dangers.

The Statue of Liberty, specifically the arm on display in Madison Square Park, is a symbol representing progress in modern America, at least as Si sees it. Si feels delighted when he first sees the arm. However, the people of 1882 New York are less impressed by it than he is—they are accustomed to it, and, as Julia states, they have little confidence that the rest of the statue will ever be built. It symbolizes disappointment in the American ideal of progress.

Si knows, on the other hand, that the statue will be built and can therefore see the statue as the promise of that same ideal. Yet, just as Si’s view from the top of Trinity Church sours his opinion of the Empire State Building, so too does the Statue of Liberty lose some of its glamor. For one thing, a night spent hiding from corrupt police in the arm does much to injure the image of American idealism. For another, once Si uses the connection between the arm in 1882 to the full statue in his time to shift both himself and Julia to safety, it becomes another aspect of his negative comparison between the past and present. It is thus connected with the motif of nostalgia.

One of the most prominent motifs threaded through the novel is a sense of nostalgia. Si is intensely nostalgic for the past, and this nostalgia relies on a romanticized portrayal of New York (and the world) in 1882. Several times in the novel, Si remarks how much better life was in 1882, citing the sense of purpose he believes people had in the past and the ways that some advances in his time have made things worse instead of better. One example is when he climbs the steeple of Trinity Church and compares the view with the view from the Empire State Building, saying, “If someday I’d have to go up ninety-odd stories to get a murky, smog-ruined view of New York instead of this brilliantly defined closer look at a lower and far pleasanter city, then who should be doing the laughing?” (223).

Si claims that people in his time are bored and take little notice of the city or the people around them. In comparison, he believes the people of 1882 pay attention and are interested in and excited about the world around them. In addition, when he thinks about the two World Wars, the atomic bomb, and other modern phenomena, he again concludes that life was simpler and better in 1882. He gives only the briefest nod to medical advances such as eradicating smallpox and polio and confesses to being bored even of the moon landing.

Si, and by extension the overall narrative, attempts to balance this nostalgia with an acknowledgment of the harsher aspects of the past. Si speaks with a bus driver in 1882 who makes him more aware of the deprivations of the working-class poor and forces him to face the prevalent issues of homelessness and child labor, to name just two social problems. Despite this brief acknowledgment, Si still believes life in 1882 is better than his time. This persistent nostalgia emphasizes that Si’s personality is better suited to the 1880s rather than his time and underscores the theme of Finding One’s Place.