We couldn't imagine the emptiness of a creature who put a razor to her wrists and opened her veins, the emptiness and the calm.
Jeffrey EugenidesRead
I hadn't gotten old enough yet to realize that living sends a person not into the future but back into the past, to childhood and before birth, finally, to commune with the dead. You get older, you puff on the stairs, you enter the body of your father. From there it's only a quick jump to your grandparents, and then before you know it you're time traveling. In this life we grow backwards.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on how aging leads us to revisit our past rather than move forward into the future.
In this thought-provoking quote, Jeffrey Eugenides suggests that as we grow older, our experiences and memories bring us closer to our origins—childhood and ancestral ties—rather than an anticipation of the future. This perspective challenges the conventional view of aging as a linear progression, proposing instead that with age comes a deeper connection to our past, as we metaphorically time travel through the lives of those before us and ultimately commune with the dead.
Themes
AgingMemoryPastChildhoodTime Travel
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared in a discussion about the nature of time and experience during a philosophy class.
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Jerome was sliding and climbing on top of me and it felt like it had the night before, like a crushing weight. So do boys and men announce their intentions. They cover you like a sarcophagus lid. And call it love.
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