Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Tale for the Time Being, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Time, Impermanence, and the Present
The Difficulty of Communication
Life vs. Death
Coincidences and Connections
Sexual Perversion and Violence
Summary
Analysis
Hugh Everett’s contemporaries thought that his “many-worlds” interpretation of quantum mechanics was far-fetched. However, Everett believed in his theory, so he thought that anything he imagined had already occurred or would occur in another world. Everett died at 51, but he had believed that “in many worlds he was immortal,” so he asked his wife to throw his cremated remains in the garbage. His daughter Liz committed suicide some years later, and in her suicide note, she asked her family to throw her in the trash, too, so that she could “end up in the correct parallel universe to meet up w/ Daddy.”
At the conclusion of the novel, Ruth hints that the “many worlds” theory—which says that anything that can possibly happen will happen in another world—is confusing but also freeing. Everett wasn’t concerned about mortality and change, since he believed that in some other world, he was immortal. As a result, he didn’t cling to the past and even advised his family to throw his ashes in the trash and move on with their lives. The last anecdote in this section, however, describes Everett’s daughter, Liz, who killed herself. She, too, seemed to have believed in her father’s “many worlds” theory, but that didn’t help her to stay present in this world. So, this theory isn’t an all-encompassing solution—Ruth perhaps believes that Zen Buddhist practices are more effective at grounding people in the present moment. Liz’s desire to “meet up w/ Daddy” ends the novel, and it connects Liz with Nao, who contemplated following Haruki into death. It also connects Liz with Ruth, who remembers that her father promised to come find her in her dreams if she happened to get lost in them. The novel leaves off on the idea that love can transcend time and space to connect people.
Themes
