63 pages • 2 hours read
Mitch AlbomThe Time Keeper
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3: “The In-Between”
Part 3, Chapter 24 Summary
The next morning, Ethan and Sarah see each other at the shelter. Ethan acts as he always does and nonchalantly unpacks the supplies. Sarah tells herself she won’t ask what happened, but then she blurts it out. He says he’s sorry but doesn’t explain why he cancelled on her. She tells him that it’s “[c]ool” (65). He finishes his task and then tells her that he’ll see her next week. She wonders what he means, referring to next Friday or next Saturday at the shelter. She’s frustrated that it’s up to her to ask. An unhoused man steps up to her window to get his oatmeal and asks for extra bananas, as he does every week, which she gets him. She goes about her regular routine and cleans up a spill that Ethan left.
Part 3, Chapter 25 Summary
At the cryonics facility, Jed explains the way bodies are positioned upside down in the large fiberglass cylinders. Victor has read everything he could about cryonics and insisted on visiting the facility the day after he received the report from research. However, he’s not impressed with what he sees. The thinking behind freezing a dead body until it can be reanimated and cured seems logical. The last part of the process is the trickiest, but he is optimistic since he has seen how much science advanced in his own lifetime. He realizes that Grace, a devout churchgoer, will never accept this, so he can’t tell her about it. He decides that he wants no visitors and that he will pay whatever it takes to have his own cylinder.
Part 3, Chapter 26 Summary
The cave continues to grow and change, as a stalactite and stalagmite slowly grow toward one another. In contrast, Dor remains motionless outside of time. He doesn’t age, and without any human contact, his soul dries up. He hears the voices in the pool as background noise, like the sound of rain. He stops thinking altogether and allows his beard, hair, and nails to grow comically long. Shaking off his lethargy, he begins carving symbols on the walls to remember the people and important moments in his life.
Part 3, Chapter 27 Summary
Lorraine, Sarah’s mother, suspects that there’s a boy involved since Sarah was wearing heels, but she and Sarah don’t talk anymore. Lorraine misses the days when Sarah would confide in her, and she could comfort her.
Grace knows that Victor is frustrated. He hates to lose, and she knows that cancer will win in the end. When he returns from the facility, he lies and tells her that he’s been at the office. She doesn’t ask about the folder he is carrying. She remembers when they used to spend time together, and she is determined to try to make his last days more like the happier days they shared together at the beginning of their marriage than the joyless middle of their marriage. She doesn’t know that he’s thinking of a future without her.
Part 3, Chapter 28 Summary
Humanity is connected through dreams. Dor, or “Father Time,” has appeared to artists over the centuries. Father Time is sitting in his cave, Sarah is in her room, Victor is in his study, and Dor is soon to be free.
Part 3 Analysis
“The In-Between” juxtaposes the secondary characters of Grace and Lorraine in a single chapter similar to the way Sarah and Victor are compared in the same chapters in “Beginning.” Grace and Lorraine are both being kept in the dark by Victor and Sarah, causing further strain to the relationship they have with them. Both women remember a time when their relationships were stronger and there was more open communication, and both regret the loss of that intimacy. Their plight highlights the need for human connection, something that, Albom suggests, is lost when people obsess about time.
Dor fully transitions into Father Time in this section. Although he is not an old man, he grows the long beard and lives outside of time as an immortal being. His static existence is contrasted with the slow-growing cave in which he is imprisoned. In order to regain a piece of his humanity, he begins drawing symbols on the wall of his cave, reminding himself of all the important moments of his mortal life, reflecting the true meaning of his existence and suggesting The Need to Live in the Present, since he is only appreciating these things in retrospect. Chapter 28 in particular draws upon the images and symbolism of Father Time throughout Western art and literature, connecting Dor with the iconic Father Time figure, comparing and contrasting the similarities and differences.
Albom parallels Sarah and Dor by highlighting their similar need to live in the present. Sarah again misses the signs that Ethan doesn’t value her because she so wants him to like her. He responds to her with both silence and cryptic answers. She is frustrated by the end of their time together at the shelter because he is vague about their next meeting, either because he is being deliberately vague or because he cares too little to see the problem. Because she is focusing so much on Ethan, Sarah doesn’t live in the present, getting to know the people she is serving at the shelter.
Victor accepts the science behind cryonics in this section, upgrading the facility and getting his own cylinder. He also chooses to lie to Grace and not let her know about his plans because he knows she will not approve, further straining their relationship. Albom highlights the paradoxical nature of refusing to accept mortality here: Victor is determined to prolong his life, and in doing so he makes his life more unhappy, making it an undesirable life to return to.
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By Mitch Albom
