In Time Symbols, Allegory and Motifs

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In Time Symbols, Allegory and Motifs

Car

Will buys a new car for 59 years (plus tax) after he's been given just over 100 years by Hamilton. It symbolizes how quickly we are willing to give away any form of wealth for instant gratification when we've lived our lives so suppressed by the elite greed of the New Greenwich types.

TIme

We that see each person has a time clock on his or her arm, and it's in a green colored countdown. The green is a symbol of how time has become a commodity, like money, which is the resource of life in this future world.

Hamilton

Hamilton gives Will all of his 100+ year time units and dies. His doing this is a symbol that people are made to live and die, not just live. It is natural that death should come, and for people to stay alive for centuries or longer is not.

Poverty

Rachel must pay back a two-day loan which leaves her with not enough time to get home to her son, who can save her life. Her "mandatory" repayment of this loan is a symbol of how institutions leverage fear in order to suppress people. They lend time, but then demand it back with interest which keeps the poor in a perpetual cycle of accumulating debt until they are buried beneath it with no way out.

1 Second

Will saves Sylvia's life by adding years to her life when she only had one second left before she died. This is a symbol that Will was able to redeem the loss of his mother who he wasn't able to reach in time before she died.

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Study Guide for In Time

In Time study guide contains a biography of director Andrew Niccol, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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In Time essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of In Time, directed by Andrew Niccol.

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