Enstines Dreams, a Summary

For a man who dressed in college sweatshirts, wore no socks (like his students), and was kicked out of Germany for his religion, Einstein's Dreams is an impressively intellectual book. It discusses theories of time in story settings from man and woman to friend or foe. Beginning with Einstein sitting at his desk as a patten clerk in Switzerland, it leads you through his theory of time, how is slows and speeds up. The book discusses different worlds where time starts and stops or “cause and effect are erratic” (page 38, Einstein's Dreams, Alan Lightman). Alan Lightman, the author, enhances Einstein's theory with simple role play to make the book thoroughly enjoyable.

“In the dim light that seeps through the room, desks appear shadowy and soft, like large sleeping animals. Except for the young mans desk,” (page 4). In 1900 Einstein graduated from Polytec Institute of Zurich, Switzerland, later he was hired by the Swiss Patent office as a Probility Technique Expert, third class. The scene from the book describes him working this desk early one morning. This is an important idea because t talks about how one of the greatest scientists was only hired as a third class invention inspector. “Suppose time is a circle, bending back on its self, the world repeats itself precisely, endlessly.”(Page 8). Einstein has many detailed theories of time, especially this, how time is a great circle. Einstein's Dreams deals with all his theories and that's why they are important to the book. “If Klausen is sufficiently delayed, he may not buy the ointment for his wife, who has been complaining of leg injuries for weeks. In that case …In turn, Richard and Catherine will not marry on 17 December 1908,” (page 15). This quote also talks about time and is important because the idea of “chain of events” surrounds us every day. Einstein's Dreams is full of important ideas relating to Einstein and his theories of time and these are some of the most significant.

Alan Lightman grew up with very artistic parents but was also interested greatly by Science, so in college he decided to major in Physics and late become a writer. I think that is the single most important preconceptions, possibly the one that lead him to write Einstein's Dreams. Lightman also had to be very familiar with Einstein's work and knew the importance of his theories that may have also led him to write the book. Einstein was also married and had children, a lot like Lightman. Before writing the book, Lightman must have realized the importance of family. Of Alan Light man's preconceptions, the outcome of the book shows they made a difference.

Einstein's Dreams is a book of fiction that tells Einstein's Dreams has they happen. The main antagonist throughout the story is time because the different time settings are what he has to overcome. This is also true because he is having all these dreams and he has to decide what really applies to our world therefore he came up with how time expands and contracts. The main character in this book is Einstein because it is his dreams that we are reading about. Throughout the story, the main character is Einstein and the antagonist is time.

The setting of Einstein's Dreams is a setting not like many other books and because we are the reader, the setting of the story is Einstein's dreams. Of course he dose travel to many cities, but they are all existing within his mind. You may think that the setting is one of those cities or places but there are too many of them to have and all of those cities and time settings are created within his brain and thoughts. This is the perspective the author wrote to us as. The setting of Einstein's Dreams is Einstein's dreams.

Because the story line changes throughout the book, it is somewhat hard to determine the source of conflict. But I found through my reading that what challenged every person in every setting was time. It effected how they thought and acted as well as their every day life style. The conflict of the story was internal because all of the dreams are happening in his mind as he sleeps. The conflict is now understandable that we have looked at the book as whole rather