“As Martha thought of little dainty things to tempt his appetite or knitted in the sickroom, Malone felt a nearer value of her love.”
The quotation finds Malone in chronic pain due to his illness after getting diagnosed with Leukemia. Similarly, the Judge is in pain too due to the health problems brought on with his advanced age and body weight. Therefore, the narrative raises the question of if death and pain afflict both good and bad men then what is the point of being morally upright. Malone is a good man but he is suffering as much as the Judge who is a bigoted and racist individual. The difference in their situations that answers the irony of the situation is that Malone is noble and has a loving wife beside him to love and care for him.
“I never thought I’d hear a grandson of mine speak as you have done. You said you didn’t see why races shouldn’t mix. Think of the logical outcome. It would lead to intermarriage.”
Racial prejudice is a significant theme in the narrative, essentially embodied by the character Judge Fox. The narrative takes place when racial integration and equality are making vital strides thus opinions are divided. Especially between the older generation and the younger one, evident through the quotation where the Judge opposes his grandson’s sentiments. He is one of the racist individuals who are against the integration even though his argument does not hold any rational ground. Judge Fox is an embodiment of a man who is out of touch and deluded by his narrow-mindedness that does no favors to his reputation either.
“For the first time he knew that death was near him. But the terror that choked him was not caused by the knowledge of his own death.”
The narrative focuses on mortality and the nature of time especially through the character Malone who is terminally ill. The title alludes to the timeless nature of the clock in the face of one’s mortality. In the assertion, Malone has an epiphany regarding his current state and his awareness of his terminal illness. In that, he now understands that his terror is not due to the knowledge of his death but rather the time between now and then. Our minds have been conditioned to know we will die someday hence terror stems on the time, thus the title.
