Glitch

“Without Lincoln’s death, things got surprisingly nasty. My one-second mistake would cause the North and South to never fully reconcile in the aftermath of the Civil War. Eventually, a second civil war would take place, this one twice as devastating and deadly as the first, making what should have been the United States of America so divided and weak that it was easily conquered. All because of one teeny-tiny, should-be-insignificant second. I watched this alternative history spiral out in flashes and blips and bit my lip. Treebaun was right—I did have to be perfect. Which was a problem, because while I was a lot of things, I was a far cry from perfect.”

This passage illustrates The Impact of Historical Events on the Present. Even historical events that are tragic are allegedly better left alone because bad events can still trigger a chain of good events that lead to the present moment. Causation is complex in this novel; good events don’t always lead to good outcomes, and bad events don’t always lead to bad outcomes.

“I knew I couldn’t be the only one who sometimes felt like the lush green lawns and immaculate buildings were just well-disguised cages. But, as I’d been reminded on multiple occasions by my mom, the security of the future was more important than satisfying a twelve-year-old girl’s wanderlust.”

This passage complicates The Ethical Implications of Time Travel because, in this novel, very few people possess the time-traveling gene. Children who do possess it are forced to attend a special school and become law-enforcement agents to stop time-traveling criminals. Regan’s simile that uses “cages” to describe the campus illustrates the ethical problem with delegating people to certain segments of society based on factors that are beyond their control (such as genetics).

“I remember that simulation like it was yesterday. Helped develop it myself after being part of the mission to fix Lincoln’s assassination. At one point there were ten different Butterflies in Ford’s Theatre that night. Ten! Half of them were trying to save Lincoln while the other half were trying to ensure that Booth didn’t break his leg when he jumped off the balcony onto the stage! Crazy.”

Officer Salzburg complicates The Ethical Implications of Time Travel. Regan can easily see why it’s morally good to stop Butterflies who want to cause destruction or inhibit progress, such as those who want to prolong enslavement in the US or prevent women from obtaining voting rights. These are the types of Butterflies who are usually emphasized when professors and other adults are explaining why it’s wrong to meddle with the past. Salzburg discusses how different Butterflies seek opposite outcomes from altering history, which makes the ethics of time travel even more confusing. Regan ultimately decides that some historical events are better changed than unchanged, despite what the rules say.

“Some of the early technology that was used to help Glitchers time travel to specific moments in the past was unnecessarily hard on the human body. It was a similar problem to what astronauts faced when they traveled in space; the journey wreaked havoc on the fragile internal balance of bones, muscles, and nerves. As a result, he had the same longing in his eyes that so many of my professors had when we talked about our training. Some of them missed it so much they ruined their own health to do just one more jump. It was one of the reasons that the deactivation injection was now required as soon as you were done with your Glitching career. The students who didn’t make it through the Academy for one reason or another received the same thing, and I’d always wondered what that would be like. Would it feel freeing, or like you’d let everyone down?”

This passage further complicates The Ethical Implications of Time Travel. In addition to the issues of meddling in the past and forcing people into specific careers based on genetics, there is the issue of sacrificing personal health in the name of the “greater good.” The older generation of Glitchers were expected to time travel as law enforcement agents, even though it was detrimental to their health. Bodily autonomy is violated for both retired and failed Glitchers, as both have their genes deactivated as a matter of policy.

“Someone had asked me once what it was like to have your mom be the commander, and I hadn’t really known how to answer them. In some ways it was pretty cool, but in others it really stunk. For one thing, I always felt like I had two moms: the public one who everyone else saw and the private one who took off her heels and replaced them with fuzzy green slippers that were almost worn through at the toe. And I really preferred the fuzzy slippers version, even if her unrelenting expectations for me often made me feel like I had an elephant sitting on my chest.”

In this passage, Regan describes the two sides of her mother’s character, illustrating her complexity and the tension between public and private life. The same person plays different roles to different people and can even play different roles toward the same person (Regan) in different contexts. She symbolizes her personal relationship with her mother through the worn, fuzzy green slippers, characterizing her as someone familiar and comforting. This comfort is juxtaposed with Regan’s insecurities, described through the metaphor of an elephant weighing down her chest.

“Friends weren’t very easy to make at the Academy, where the structure of the curriculum pitted us against one another practically from kindergarten. I’d had an exceptionally hard time of it. Between all the extra tutoring and study sessions I’d been receiving since practically day one, and the fact that I was the commander in chief’s daughter, well, there wasn’t a whole lot of time for that. I didn’t live in the dorms with everyone else, and the only meal I ate in the dining hall was lunch, and I usually used that time to cram for a class. There were other kids in my cadet class who I talked to, but would I consider any of them friends? Probably not. If I was honest with myself, though, something I tried to be, I knew that wasn’t what I wanted. I’d have loved friends, or even just one. Someone I could tell something like this to, someone I knew would have my back no matter what.”

This passage introduces the theme of The Development of Friendship and Teamwork in Challenging Situations, even though Regan hasn’t made any friends or started practicing teamwork yet. It sets up Regan’s desire for friendship and explains how the structure of the Academy, coupled with Regan’s unique circumstances as the commander-in-chief’s daughter, have inhibited her ability to make friends or even practice teamwork.

“Even if I caught the Butterfly now, this entire ship was going to go up in flames. There would be fatalities as the Sons of Liberty leaped into the sea to escape. Not only that, this ship was moored dangerously close to other ships. Ships that were also made completely of wood…The harbor would ignite. The entire town of Boston could go up in flames…I knew what a fire could do in this time period, and it was devastating. What was supposed to be a violence-free protest would turn into one of the most horrendous events in America’s history. If America even existed after, I realized, remembering the vital importance of this very night to the United States gaining its independence.”

This passage illustrates The Impact of Historical Events on the Present. A Butterfly is trying to prevent the success of the Boston Tea Party by burning the relevant ships, but Regan speculates that this action would have effects far beyond the intended consequence, likely destroying the entire city of Boston. All the Butterfly actually did was light a lighter aboard a wooden ship, but fires spread quickly on wooden ships, just like the butterfly effect can spread quickly and destructively throughout history.

“The wind whipped off the water and almost took my breath away as it brought with it the salty smells of the sea. I looked back at the Academy walls, feeling like a turtle suddenly deprived of its shell. Resigned, I stepped onto a real boat for the first time in my life.”

When Regan moves away from the island where the Academy is located for the first time, she is departing from her home. The simile of “a turtle deprived of its shell” illustrates how vulnerable Regan feels away from her home, as if she’s missing something that is meant to protect her. This passage also foreshadows the fact that Regan’s home is at risk of being destroyed.

“We were coasting up to a small dock on an island that was almost completely taken up by a large craggy mountain. Where the Academy had the polished and manicured look of a college campus, this looked every inch the uninhabited wilderness.”

This passage juxtaposes the settings of the Academy’s main campus compared to the Lewis & Clark program. Whereas the physical setting of the main campus reflects the fact that it is well-established, conventional, and predictable (to Regan), the wild and uninhabited appearance of the Lewis & Clark program reflects the fact that the program is newer and less established, and Regan doesn’t know what to expect from it. These juxtaposed settings also foreshadow the rest of the plot; the Academy’s manicured appearance symbolizes the harmless training simulations the students experience, while the Lewis & Clark program’s unpolished setting anticipates Regan and Elliot’s real-world rescue mission.

“If a traditional Glitcher is a doctor or a surgeon even, going into historical events with ample preparation to operate and remove the Butterfly with perfectly executed precision, then the L and C program is the equivalent of a first responder. We are training you to be thrust into situations where thinking on your feet is not only imperative, but life or death.”

Here, Serina describes her view of the differences between traditional Glitchers and partner pairs trained at the Lewis & Clark program. The simile comparing doctors or surgeons to first responders illustrates how partner pairs aren’t afforded the same amount of preparation because their missions are more unexpected.

“I thought again of Colonel Chamberlain. If one man could change history so completely, then the least I could do was try to keep that history intact. To do that, I was going to have to start getting along with Regan Fitz.”

This quote illustrates The Ethical Implications of Time Travel as well as The Development of Friendship and Teamwork in Challenging Situations. Elliot is so dedicated to the Glitchers’ mission of preserving history and protecting the present and future that he’s willing to do anything, even work with Regan, to accomplish these goals. His experience suggests that teamwork does not always occur “naturally” or without effort; sometimes people have to work toward succeeding as a team.

“‘Here’s the deal,’ Sam went on. ‘The way I see it, you get dealt a hand in life, and it’s up to you to choose how you play it. So, you can keep huffing and puffing about the partner you got stuck with, or you can make the best of it and become a phenomenal team. From what I saw back there…Regan is pretty dang good.’”

This passage further illustrates The Development of Friendship and Teamwork in Challenging Situations. Sam uses a metaphor about playing cards to reflect on how everyone’s circumstances are different—while one cannot control that, they can control how they react. He helps Elliot realize that friendship can be a choice and that making friends with Regan would likely make his life easier and more enjoyable.

“‘You know,’ Elliot said […] ‘if we can get this figured out, we might actually make it as partners.’ And for the very first time, I believed it.”

This quote emphasizes Elliot’s growth. While he has been resisting the idea of bonding with Regan up until this point, working together to help her learn about history has made him genuinely open to their partnership.

“If there were four agents mid-mission when the Academy lost power, then those agents had no way of making it back to the present. They were stuck in whatever time they’d been sent to. Worse than that, if left in that time period for too long, they would inevitably become Butterflies themselves, meddling with the ebb and flow of time by their very presence.”

This passage complicates The Impact of Historical Events on the Present. Whereas most Butterflies time travel so they can intentionally change something about history, it’s also possible to accidentally become a Butterfly. Even small changes to the past, such as speaking to someone and delaying their journey by 30 seconds, can lead to massive shifts in the historical paradigm. The longer a Glitcher stays in the past, the more likely they are to become accidental Butterflies.

“‘History isn’t supposed to be pretty,’ he’d said. ‘It’s downright repulsive at times, and you don’t have to like it or agree with it to preserve it. But remember that the healthiest forests grow the year after a forest fire, and that without extreme pressure we wouldn’t have diamonds. You can’t hurry history, and you can’t fix an injustice until people recognize that it is one.’”

This passage complicates The Ethical Implications of Time Travel. Like Regan, Elliot struggles with not being allowed to change certain historical events—his lived experience as a Black person makes it particularly difficult for him to allow racist hate crimes to occur. However, Professor Abrams reasons that sometimes when tragedies occur, people learn from them and take measures to prevent similar tragedies from happening again in the future. The metaphor of a forest growing healthily after a forest fire illustrates how tragedies can result in learning and positive change.

“It will be a free-for-all…When news gets out, every time traveling criminal with the ability to Glitch will be jumping into the past and doing who knows how much damage. That’s on top of whatever Mayhem is planning to do now that the Academy is gone.”

This passage complicates The Ethical Implications of Time Travel. Although Elliot realizes that tampering with the past is usually a bad idea, the case of the Academy’s destruction is unique because this recent event, if left unchanged, will cause a string of even more disastrous events. With very few living Glitchers in the US, this will allow Butterflies to wreak havoc on history. Ironically, Elliot and Regan must become Butterflies to better prevent other Butterflies from running amok.

“‘Just because the Academy was destroyed does not give us permission to become the very people who we dedicated our lives to capturing,’ Callaway said.”

This passage develops The Ethical Implications of Time Travel. Professor Callaway believes that meddling in the past is always wrong, even in this scenario where the attack on the Academy will result in more meddling by Mayhem members and other Butterflies. The kids have a different perspective and decide to change the past and prevent the attack on the Academy as a form of harm reduction.

“Just like before, we huddled together, waiting to see if we’d get discovered, but unlike last time, I realized I was glad that it was Elliot crouching shoulder to shoulder with me. Somewhere in between the teasing and the bickering, I’d come to think of him as more than a mandatory partner. Somewhere along the line, he’d become a friend. I made a mental note to tell him that if we survived this.”

This passage illustrates The Development of Friendship and Teamwork in Challenging Situations. It might seem like making friends under tumultuous circumstances would be more difficult, but difficult situations can give people common ground. In this case, Elliot and Regan bond over the difficult scenario they’ve been thrown into. This demonstrates both of their characters’ growth since the beginning of the novel.

“‘If it makes you feel any better, there’s no one else I’d rather have as a partner in crime,’ she said.

‘In a weird way, that actually does make me feel better,’ I said.”

This quote further illustrates The Development of Friendship and Teamwork in Challenging Situations. After they realize Regan’s mom wouldn’t have believed them about Officer Salzburg because they have no proof, Regan and Elliot bond over their difficult circumstances and admit that being friends makes them feel better. The idiom “partner in crime” is tongue-in-cheek; it’s usually used to simply describe close friends, but the two are technically criminals now since they’re interfering with the past.

“To my surprise, Tess and Eliana both stopped to give Elliot and me a quick, fierce hug before flying out the door after Serina and Sam.

‘What was that for?’ Elliot asked, looking after them in confusion.

‘It’s a friendship thing,’ Corban said, clapping Elliot so hard on the back he stumbled forward with a step. ‘Don’t let it freak you out.’ With that, Corban and Blake disappeared out the door too.”

This quote further illustrates The Development of Friendship and Teamwork in Challenging Situations. In addition to making friends with each other, Elliot and Regan are surprised to bond with the other partner pairs in the Lewis & Clark program during this difficult time. The fact that friendship is foreign to Elliot is demonstrated by his confusion over being hugged.

“‘It’s fine,’ he said. ‘We saved the Academy, but more importantly, we saved a lot of lives tonight. And’—he shrugged again—‘that’s what we became Glitchers for—to protect the future. So it’s okay if they arrest us. It’s worth it.’

‘You’re not mad?’ I asked.

‘Not even a little bit. Now come on,’ he said. ‘We are in this together. It’s time to face the music.’”

This passage complicates The Ethical Implications of Time Travel. Whereas before, Elliot believed that tampering with the past was inherently wrong, he now believes that protecting the future is morally right, even if he must tamper with the past to protect the future. Elliot has decided that in this case, the ends justify the means, and it doesn’t make sense to put an outright ban on tampering with the past.

“‘Man, you were a jerk,’ Regan muttered, and I turned to smile at her.

‘Were?’ I said. ‘As in, I’m not anymore?’

Regan rolled her eyes, but smiled. ‘Well,’ she said. ‘You aren’t a grade-A jerk anymore. Maybe a grade B or C.’

‘First time I’ve been glad not to get an A,’ I mused as we watched past Elliot spot the letter that would change everything.

‘Just for the record,’ I said, ‘you’re better now too.’

‘What do you mean?’ she said.

‘I mean you used to walk around the Academy like some kind of princess surveying her kingdom. Like you couldn’t be bothered to learn anyone’s name or care about anyone but yourself.’”

This quote further illustrates The Development of Friendship and Teamwork in Challenging Situations. Through dialogue, it neatly summarizes how Elliot and Regan’s characters have developed over the course of the novel. Whereas before, both characters were somewhat self-involved, they’re now much better at collaborating and considering the needs of others.

“As the steel door of the Glitch room locked behind us, I reminded myself that whatever happened, it would all be worth it. We’d saved the Academy, and in doing so we’d done what we’d been trained to do—we’d protected the future of the United States.”

This passage further complicates The Ethical Implications of Time Travel. Regan reaches a similar conclusion as Elliot: she now believes that she should act in ways that help achieve her ultimate goal rather than strictly following the rules. Oftentimes, this goal may require her to leave the past as it is, but other times, it might require her to change the past, despite what the law says. Essentially, the ethics of changing the past must be examined on a case by case basis.