How to Stop Time

Haig uses people and places to illustrate that change is inevitable. Change happens whether humankind wants it to or not. To prove his point, Haig juxtaposes the past with the present, showing how people and places progress and evolve. Tom is the perfect vehicle for analyzing this change. Having lived through four centuries of history, he witnesses change and progress. Tom lives through centuries of human progress, and most of it is destructive. Channeling an ancient Greek philosopher, Tom observes how “everything changes and nothing changes” (104). He watches the progression of cities but still recognizes the old beneath the new.

One of the biggest examples of change is the portrayal of London through the years. In the 16th century, Tom lives with Rose and Grace in a house on Well Lane in the suburb of Hackney. A stone wall surrounds the cottage and nearby barn. Fruit orchards and a pond are seen beyond. Four hundred years later in the 21st century, Well Lane has become Well Street. Everything is “long gone [...] And then I see it, on the other side of the road—the spot where we must have lived. It is now a windowless red-brick building, with a blue and white sign outside. HACKNEY PET RESCUE SERVICES” (28). Change can even happen in the shorter timeframe of 30 years. In 1860, Tom visits the London Cutaneous Institution for Treatment and Cure of Non-infectious Diseases of the Skin. Thirty-one years later in 1891, he visits the same institution, only now it is called London Skin Clinic. Nothing stays the same forever.

In addition to places, Haig uses people to show the effects of change. Upon their first meeting, Tom describes Dr. Johnathan Hutchinson as a tall, impressive, formidable man with a long memorable beard. When Tom returns 30 years later, Dr. Hutchinson has clearly aged: “His once distinguished beard was now wispy and grey and sparse. The whites of his eyes were yellowing and his hands were twisted with arthritis and spotted from time. And his rich plum voice now came with raspy intakes of breath” (42). Another such contrast is exemplified between Omai and his daughter, Anna. Omai’s unchanging looks are contrasted by his daughter’s aged appearance. Anna is an old woman when Tom first meets her, “face as lined as a map. Standing asymmetrically from arthritis and osteoporosis. Worried, cataract-infested eyes.” (292). Omai is unchanged from when Tom last saw him hundreds of years before. Anna, like Dr. Hutchinson, changes over time. These changes are even more observable when compared to Omai and Tom, who don’t physically show the ravages of time.