51 pages • 1 hour read
Emma StraubThis Time Tomorrow
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Alice Stern
Alice Stern is the central protagonist of This Time Tomorrow. At age 40, Alice takes stock of her life: She works in the admissions office of the private school she attended, a job she’s had for decades without ever intending to make it into a career. She wanted to be an artist, a dream that never panned out. She’s single and childless, though she believes she is happy on her own. Her friends have mostly moved away, had children, and established family lives, leaving Alice largely alone. She struggles with the impending and slow death of her beloved father, Leonard.
While Alice’s reflections on her life are mostly positive, she comes to realize that she has rarely sought anything out and has instead settled for the circumstances she finds herself in. She is notably un-impulsive as an adult. Her rejection of Matt’s proposal is one of the few life-altering decisions she has deliberately made, and the first of many in the book. She frames this rejection as her right to choose what she wants out of life rather than go along with what society might expect of her, a right she is able to pursue much more dramatically in her subsequent time travels. She doesn’t truly understand this until her first birthday lunch with Leonard, when his revelation that fear has kept him from publishing another book makes her see herself in this light: “He was afraid, too, and happier to stay close to what had worked, rather than risk it all on something new” (132). This realization spurs her first major time-travel decision—to have sex with Tommy Joffey, resulting in a wealthy but ultimately unsatisfying alternate life. The reasoning behind this decision, however, is what she finds significant: “[I]f I actually take ownership of my feelings, and act on them, instead of being afraid all the time, I think that will change my life” (152). Her infinite opportunities to take action have the added bonus of satisfying her creative urges, making Alice an artist in the medium of her own life.
Ultimately, once Alice learns the lesson of acting rather than settling, she has to reconcile it with the lesson of acceptance. Only when she has exhausted her options for saving Leonard is she able to accept the inevitability of their mortality; this frees her from the grip of the past and turns her gaze forward. She comes to understand that while settling is an act of fear, acceptance is an act of anticipation, allowing her to live an authentic and unfulfilled life.
Leonard Stern
Notably, Leonard Stern does not change much throughout the novel; though Alice’s time travels prompt him to publish a second book and marry again, his essential character remains the same—because he has spent a lifetime examining and refining it.
Leonard is viewed mostly through the lessons he models for his daughter. His assertion that his relationship with Serena never worked out despite his best efforts on his many trips back allows Alice to accept that some relationships aren’t meant to be, excusing her failed marriages to Tommy, her rejection of Matt, and even her own mother’s abandonment. His eventual second marriage to Debbie also frees Alice from the assumption that she has remained single because she never had a happy marriage modeled for her, allowing her to accept her enjoyment of the single life instead of wondering if she’s missing out due to a personal failing.
Though Leonard’s countless returns to the day of Alice’s birth emphasize his great love for her, significantly, Leonard is not portrayed as a stereotypically good father. Alice reflects:
[E]very Father’s Day, on the internet, Alice was bombarded with photos of dads hiking, dads cooking, dads throwing underhanded softball pitches, dads building stuff with tools, dads playing dress-up. Leonard had never done any of those things, and sometimes Alice wished he had, but she couldn’t fault him for being who he was. He was who he was, and she loved him for it, especially that version of him, the young one who lived like nothing could hurt him (277-78).
Ultimately, Alice’s many opportunities to analyze her father’s behaviors and flaws at different times in his life allow her to experience a more complete love for him by embracing his imperfections. This provides a model for her to move forward and embrace life in a similarly holistic way, accepting her father’s and her own missteps and exchanging fear for anticipation. Leonard’s advice guides Alice’s character development, and his death symbolizes a new chapter for her life, as well as a conclusion to the desire to travel through time.
Samantha
Samantha is Alice’s best friend and a major source of support for Alice. Crucially, Sam believes Alice when she tells her about traveling through time; this belief in Alice emphasizes their close bond and their unconditional love. Sam also represents a road not taken for Alice; as an adult in a loving marriage with three children, Sam has the kind of life that Alice once dreamed about. But Sam’s new family also keeps her distanced from Alice through the necessities of her responsibilities, reinforcing for Alice the advantages of the single life.
Sam is also important in the “past” version of Alice’s time traveling. She gives Leonard the idea of writing a second novel about teenage girls who travel through time, which leads to the publication of his second book, a symbol that reminds Alice how much her father believes in her while she’s traveling through time and different versions of life. Sam’s character acts as a sidekick to Alice’s character development, helping her process decisions that inspire significant changes.
Tommy Joffey
Tommy Joffey is a tertiary character whose presence in the novel is a symbol of the “what if” nature of human existence. Alice was in love with Tommy when she was a teenager and they were good friends. But at that age, Alice didn’t know how to advocate for what she wanted. When she goes back to her 16-year-old self, she has sex with Tommy so she can let go of the “what if” about Tommy. In an alternate version of her 40-year-old life, she and Tommy are married with children. Though this is a type of manifestation of what Alice thought she wanted, she figures out that she doesn’t want to be married to Tommy. Thus, Tommy represents the possibilities of Alice’s life.
