Matt Haig How To Stop Time Literary Techniques

1/22/23
Dear Mrs. Wolfson, I highly recommend that you read the book How to Stop Time. It is a historical fantasy novel written by Matt Haig. The main character, Tom Hazard, is a four hundred year old man who sees his extended life as a curse. Throughout the novel, he fights through the struggles of living while trying to find his missing daughter, who also has an elongated lifespan. I believe you should read this book not only for its alluring plotline, but also for the intriguing quotes, the underlying theme, and the way the tone is set through the character's thoughts and emotions. To start, Matt Haig is a phenomenal author who I believe writes some of the most interesting and mindset-altering quotes. One of my favorite quotes from How

In the novel, the author uses the words and inner thoughts of Estienne to express his view that learning how to grow and find happiness can be challenging, but there is still hope. One good example of this is when Estienne realized he cannot get rid of the past, but has to accept it so that he can focus on the present. In Estienne’s inner thoughts, he stated, “I need ‘closure’ as people say these days. Though you can never close the past. The most you can do with it is accept it. And that is the point I want to reach” (Haig 108). As Estienne started healing, he began sharing his hope with others. While talking to a student he stated, “‘You can’t choose where you are born, you can’t decide who won’t leave you, you can’t choose much. A life has unchangeable tides the same as history does. But there is still room inside it for choice. For decisions’” (Haig 152). This quote really helped the author express his belief that working through hard things is possible, as long as you focus on the present and let go of things you cannot control because it shows that no matter how much happens, you can always make choices on what to do or how to react. The author is showing that you can decide how something affects you, and it’s really important to make sure you don’t let things hurt you or affect you negatively. This tone is expressed throughout the entire novel, even in the thoughts and emotions of other characters. The way the tone is set is extraordinary and really makes the book