Response Paper for the Hours

Response Paper for The Hours

In The Hours, Michael Cunningham is able to intertwine the lives of three, seemingly different women, but as the story unfolds, their similarities begin to show. Throughout the novel, there are themes that continuously reappear. The one theme I thought to be most interesting was the overall idea of valuing time. The novel itself takes place in the span of only one day, a mere twenty four hours. By having the entire story take place in one day, I feel Cunningham is able to further emphasize how important time is and how each hour of the day is filled with infinite possibilities and unknown potential for each of these women.

The character of Laura Brown, a housewife who is beginning to feel the walls of domestication close in on her, looks forward to any time that she can peel away from her everyday life to read Mrs. Dalloway. She cherishes this time so much that she eventually checks herself into a hotel in order to have some quiet time to read. Before she even checks in, however, she knows she only has two hours or so before she must pick up her son. “For an hour or two, she can go wherever she likes. After that, the alarms will start up. By five o’clock or so, Mrs.