Glitch

“I hated this simulation. It felt ten kinds of wrong to allow something horrendous like an assassination of arguably one of our greatest presidents, but it was all part of the job. It was why this particular simulation was so important to our training. We had to learn that what we thought about right and wrong didn’t matter. At least not when it came to changing history. As a Glitcher, it was my job to make sure things stayed exactly the way the history books described without interference from a Butterfly.”

This passage introduces The Ethical Implications of Time Travel as well as The Impact of Historical Events on the Present. Because of the potential for one seemingly insignificant change to alter the entire course of history, authority figures in the novel have deemed it illegal and immoral to meddle with the past in any way. However, later in the text, the protagonists call these ethics into question and determine that sometimes, changing the past is the only way to protect the future.

“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